Quotative Use in American English

Abstract

Previous research on innovative quotative verbs (e.g., be like, go) has been based almost exclusively on narratives of personal experience or sociolinguistic interviews. The present study broadens our understanding of the extent to which new forms of quotatives are established in American English by looking at their use across different registers of spoken interaction. Specifically, the study investigates the frequency of use and grammatical association patterns of the quotatives be like, go, be all, and say in four registers: casual conversation, university service encounters and workplace conversation, university students’ study groups, and academic office hour consultations. The findings show that, overall, be like and go are well established across these registers, while be all is still rather uncommon. In addition, all new quotatives consistently occur more frequently in present tense, while the traditional quotative say is more frequent in the past. The analyses of the patterns of use of the quotatives with different grammatical subjects and of the discourse functions of the quotation support the hypothesis that be like is expanding in American English.