Title from abstract: Use of like in literature discussion of 6th grade elementary students

This study examines the use of like in literature discussion of 6th grade elementary students. Using corpus data from 28 students aged 11-12 in East Central Indiana, the frequency of like, distribution of functions of discourse marker (DM) like and quotative like, distribution of subject, numbers, and tense of quotative like, and gender distribution of DM like and quotative like are examined and compared with the results of the previous researchers. Comparing 2,403 tokens of like out of 187,742 words, various functions in the use of DM like and quotative like used by the early adolescents are noted. The early adolescents appropriately manipulated three kinds of like depending on the discussion types and contents, and they adopt the same usage of DM like and quotative like as the other teenagers or college-aged students in the previous research. In addition, they show the new functions of DM like named `playing' and `natural turn taking,' and also adopt various subjects and tense of quotative like.Department of EnglishThesis (M.A.