Keeping up with Hollywood’s Valley Girls

A Lifespan Study Exploring the Kardashian Sisters’ Use of Traditional and Non-Traditional Likes

Abstract

This paper looks at traditional and non-traditional (stigmatised) variations of like through a 10-year longitudinal panel study using readily available speech of reality stars Kim, Khloe, and Kourtney Kardashian. With this unique dataset, this paper compares their use of traditional and non-traditional likes and looks at possible patterns to further understand age-based correlations of these features. An analysis of the data shows a relatively stable trend in their use of non-traditional likes, supporting theories that suggest the feature is not subject to the lifespan change associated with age grading. Speech accommodation theory is proposed as an explanation for the patterns found.