Abstract

This paper examines a form of talking about speech acts, mental states, and other features so far unexplored in philosophy: quotative _be like._ Quotative _be like_ is the use of _like_ and _to be_ that occurs in constructions such as “Ellen was like“I’m leaving!”” We argue that neglect of quotative _be like_ represents a gap in our understanding of our ways of characterizing the minds and speech of ourselves and others. Further, we show that quotative _be like_ is not reducible to more familiar forms of direct discourse or indirect discourse. Mapping out a number of different options for theorizing about quotative _be like_, we argue for an account on which the quoted material in quotative _be like_ picks out properties.