Date:  Wed, 8 Oct 1997 10:40:18 -0500
From:  Mai Kuha <mkuha[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]INDIANA.EDU>
Subject: Imperative "BE+like"

Earlier this week I heard "BE+like" in the imperative for the first time,
and thought it was so neat that I just have to tell someone, so here you
go:

I was at a discount store (here in Bloomington, Indiana) and one of the
other shoppers was not finding an item she was looking for. Her companion,
a male in his teens, suggested: "The next time you see someone wearing it,
be like: 'where did you get that?'"

Maybe this is old news and I just haven't been paying attention. But, if
this is new, I would think the occurrence of the expression in the
imperative is a sign that it is being used in a greater variety of
contexts, so maybe its use is increasing. Also, "BE+like" in this context
must mean "say" rather than "think/feel", because it doesn't make much
sense to tell someone to have a particular cognitive state.

-Mai
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Mai Kuha
mkuha[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]indiana.edu
http://php.indiana.edu/~mkuha/home.html
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