You're like `why not?' The quotative expressions of Glasgow ...

QUOTATIVES IN GLASGOW 9
4) a. And I'm like `No that's sick'
b. And I'm like `Woops'
c. she's like `Is your sister going out with a guy called Paul?'
d. her ma's like `Go on make me a co€ee'
e. I was like `What the fuck is that?'
However, there is evidence of some innovation or confusion in the transmission,
as the examples in 5) and 6) show:
5) a. I was like that `On you go'
b. and Amanda was like that `Batter him'
c. you were like that `Aw shut up man'
d. he was like that `Your maw came in by the way'
e. I was like that `Shit'
6) a. she went like that `Do you no think that's a bit two-faced?'
b. she just went like that `Fuck you you wanker'
c. we all used to go like that `I wish I was like her like her'
d. one of the boys went like that to him `You've lost your virginity'
e. I went like that `Aaah my voice'
None of the American or other) examples that I have seen include quotatives
such as I was like that or she went like that. All the examples occur in the past
tense.) Both these forms carry the suggestion of a gestural deictic that cannot be
recovered from the audio-tapes, and yet in most cases the idea of an
accompanying gesture seems implausible. The that is clearly the demonstrative
pronoun and not the complementizer. The use of was/went like that is mostly
found where the quoted speech shows strong emotion, as in examples 5 b, d, e)
and 6 b, e). Even examples such as 5 d), which might seem to be neutral in
tone, are emotionally charged because the speaker did not want her mother to
know what she had been doing. Romaine and Lange argue `that when like is
used to introduce quotation, it is devoid of neither semantic meaning nor
syntactic status' 1991: 246). In example 6e) I went like that `Aaah my voice'),
the use of like is close to its basic use as a preposition in I went like this `Aaaah'
with the di€erent deictic pronoun. The examples in 5) and 6) all can be
interpreted as retaining a strong sense of the basic comparative meaning of like.
The use of the distal pronoun that, however, shows that was/went like that is a
true quotative.
There is also a rare form done that, also with the distal deictic. The examples
are given in 7):
7) a. and Stephanie done that `What are you talking about?'
b. Kelly done that to David and me one day `You two should become best pals'
c. I went up to Chantel and done that says `It's not me that hates you'
The last example with the addition of says to done that suggest that this form
may need reinforcement as a quotative. The ®gures for all the quotatives are
given in Table 4. Unlike in other reports of quotatives Tagliamonte and Hudson
# Blackwell Publishers Ltd. 2001