Liking (or at least understanding) Like: Part 1 Alexandra D'Arcy is a sociolinguist by training and specializes in the study of language variation and change. She is an Assistant Professor in Linguistics and the Director of the newly formed Sociolinguistics Lab at the University of Victoria . This is the third installation in her new monthly column so be sure to check back next month. Like . Who likes it? When I ask this of my students a few bashful hands do get raised, but largely the question is met with scorn, derision, and unabashed judgment. And my students aren't alone in these sentiments. Popular media is replete with complaints concerning this latest scourge on the English language. Newspapers, magazines, television news, talk shows, blogs and comics regularly decry its 'weed-style' growth and its ability to 'drive out [...] vocabulary as candy expels vegetables' (Christopher Hitchens, Vanity Fair , January 2010). Like , however, is misunderstood. We have very strong beliefs about why we don't like like : it makes us seem vacuous and inarticulate. We also know who the primary offenders are: young people, and adolescent girls in particular. And we know who to blame: not just Californians but Americans. We are convinced that like is new, meaningless, and ultimately, a blight on the English language. There are, however, a number of reasons to actually like like , or, at the very least, to respect it (or simply to hate it a little less than we currently do). I