Two bodies of Scottish English data are analysed. There are two major constructions with
LIKE. The one with clause-final LIKE is used to (anticipate and) counter (possible) objections
and assumptions; the second one, with LIKE in other positions, is analysed as non-
contrastive focus, a highlighting device. The structures are not verbal tics but follow regular
patterns with regular functions. They are not associated with hesitations and poor syntactic
planning. They are far more frequent than clefts, possibly because they do not disrupt the …