Dear Editor,
This is in response to Allyn West's column on Oct. 1 entitled"Speech fillers, like, must be stopped."
Every semester a DAILY NEWS column writer, being the languagebuff he or she naturally is, writes a scathing account of the useof "fillers" in everyday speech. Usually the topic of this bitingcolumn is the ubiquitous use of "like" in American English, thoughsometimes, for variety, the neophyte philologist will discuss theoveruse of "you know."
Sometimes, as is the case in Allyn West's Oct. 1 column, thewriter will appoint himself as ultimate language critic with theunrestrained authority to "bemoan" uses of "cringe-inducingdrivel."
Well, Allyn, I bet that if we audiotaped you talking for fiveminutes or less, we would discover that you--even you--use "speechfillers" and what the prescriptive grammarian, i.e., your eighthgrade English teacher, likes to call "ungrammatical utterances."The horror!
The thing is, Allyn, language is constantly changing--alwayshas, always will. And even you, with your snobby attitude, cannotprevent speakers from owning and manipulating language to fit theirneeds.
It's people like you who perpetuate elitism in language use,which often leads to racist attitudes against stigmatized dialects.If you really want to make a difference, why not try breaking downthe stereotypes society holds for speech that doesn't quite matchup to the unrealistic ideals set forth in grammar books, which arereally designed for written speech anyway?
Allyn, you are always entitled to your opinion. It's fine withme if "like" annoys you to no end, but please get your factsstraight before you tear into your next issue. The goal of mostlinguists is like that of the anthropologist: They exist to observeand record language in its everyday use. The reason Dr. Kuha andDr. Siegel study "oral garbage" like "like" is to document andexplain. They are interested in real language use; their job isn'tto dictate how people should speak. Next time, dig a little deeperbefore you are so quick to one-up these scholars.
The main goal of language is to communicate. But if people areafraid to use their own language--perhaps they say "like" or "youknow" too much--what good is it?
Carrie Conley
graduate student
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