"Like" is a very busy word in English and it has many hats to wear. We know it as a verb, a noun and a preposition, principally, but as a conjunction?

In the Shenzhen Daily of July 30, there was a story dealing with Hong Kong women going across the border to find the Mr Right. The article included the sentence "The story began with middle-aged blue-collar workers, LIKE container truck drivers and pier laborers....."

The status of conjunctional "like" has been debated many times. In "The Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language" ed. R. Quirk, (1985) described the usage as "informal."

But if you look at the works of recent British, American writers, and those from further afield, the results are of interest. I can detect four main conjunctional uses of "like."

A. People often say this to me here: "You don't talk like a New Zealander."

This use which owes something to the song "If you knew Susie, like I know Susie," is common in all English-speaking countries, and is perfectly acceptable. Naturally, though, we may continue to use other constructions if we wish to: "She changed the colors of her living room the same way some women changed their underwear."

B. It is frequently used in American, and Australian sources principally to mean "as if, as though": "She acts like she can't help it"; I have also heard on the BBC: "It looks like the Prime Minister will leave for Camp David next week."

C. It is interchangeable with "as" in all English-speaking countries in a range of fixed, somewhat jocular phrases of saying or telling: "Well, like I told you, I worked with him for a couple of years"; "Like I said, I haven't seen her for three weeks."

D. It is increasingly used in contexts where a comparison is being made, and this is the case found in the Shenzhen Daily. In these it has the force of "in the manner," or "in the way." This is seen too in "How was I to know she'd turn out like she did?" ; "The river flowed like it did when it overflowed in 1996."

It appears that in many kinds of written and spoken English "like" as a conjunction is struggling towards acceptable standard.