"To older people, hearing kids talk that way is like, `Oh, they have no ambition.' Of course, linguists know that there's absolutely no connection between using the word `like' and being stupid or having no ambition."įought says reading social doom into linguistic change is nothing new. "People in their 30s, 40s, and 50s are focused on getting ahead, having a career," Fought says. He says older speakers associate the constant use of "like" with being less intelligent, less ambitious and less serious about life. But what some consider relaxed, others call lazy.įew words have raised the ire of language purists the way the quotative "like" has in the years since "Clueless." Any tirade about the state of the language is sure to say something about "like" as a plague on the language.įought says older speakers of any language tend to have the most negative response to language change. In 1995, 'Clueless' starring Alicia Silverstone, Paul Rudd & Brittany Murphy came out. "I think `Clueless' was really one of the first to get those new trends started and raise the question for linguists."įought has done studies that show people associate the California dialect with the state's pleasant climate, outdoor sports and its stereotypical relaxed, laid-back spirit. "Now there's more dissemination of casual speech ," Fought says. He soon landed roles in 1996's Romeo + Juliet, 1998's The Object of My Affection and 2001's Wet Hot American. Regional dialects remain the biggest influence on people's pronunciation and vocabulary people tend to sound like the people around them.īut many teenagers outside of California apparently have picked up on the kind of dialect Silverstone uses in "Clueless." Rudd played Josh Lucas, Cher Horowitz's ex-stepbrother and love interest.
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Linguists have long rejected the possibility that TV and movies change the way we speak. "Said" precedes an exact quotation, "all" and "like" can also set up an approximate quotation in the tone of the original speaker.įought says linguists now need to take a new look at whether movies such as "Clueless" can even influence certain sound changes, such as "oo-fronting." The Californian pronunciation of "oo" is initiated toward the front of the mouth, so that the word "dude" sounds more like "dewd" than "dood." Fought says some Americans outside California have started to adopt "oo-fronting."
These words aren't just casual alternatives to "said" they often have their own function. The ultimate guide to Clueless film locations continues from. "All" and "like" are used here as what linguists call quotative markers, introducing a quotation. Clueless Circus Liquor sign Photo courtesy of WarmSleepy, Flickr.
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