Last week at the Union I heard something I feel sure many would interpret as the final victory of slovenly speech over good English. Though the integrity of the arguments aired there cannot always be assured, the Union is a venue where the precise, formalised use of English is of paramount importance. It is the last place you’d expect to hear the word 'like' being used in its colloquial, interjectory sense.

Nevertheless, a few days ago, I heard two speakers on either side of the same debate use 'like' in this way. What I want to argue is that this much berated usage is just as defensible as any other idiom, and a good deal more than many.

There are few interjections with as much stigma attached to them as this little word, and yet it plays an important role in our everyday speech. We use it when we wish to make an approximation; when in the pressure and rapidity of spoken discourse we can’t quite call to mind the words to convey precisely what we mean, but can think of terms to take us half way there.

Take 'I’m, like, starving', for example. In this context, the use of 'like' is very perceptive. The speaker is not announcing their imminent death. Here, 'like' serves to qualify; to acknowledge that a metaphor is being employed. Not only does 'like' take its place at the end of a long line of idioms and verbal tics which people have undoubtedly called upon since the birth of language, it is often a lot more expressive than many. That it is treated unjustly by some speakers is demonstrated by the virtual lack of taboo surrounding expressions such as ‘sort of’ and ‘kind of’.

And yet I would argue that in most cases it is more apt than either of these well-established phrases. ‘It’s a bit, sort of, boring,’ I might comment of the Mona Lisa. Regardless of the sensitivity of my aesthetic judgement, it is certainly questionable whether there are different sorts of, categories of, boringness. Alternatively, ‘it’s a bit, like, boring’ wouldn’t invite this debate, yet it would suitably convey my tentative description.

I am not condoning the indiscriminate use of 'like' displayed by some speakers. But this extends to the superfluous use of any interjection, or indeed word, to the point of semantic emptiness. 'Like' simply happens to be the favoured interjection amongst young English speakers today.

'Like' has its place in present-day spoken English. We should be wary of overusing it, but we certainly should not see its usage as indicative of the degradation of the language.