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"Smart and funny - I loved it! - Mignon Fogarty, author of New York Times bestseller Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better WritingA lively linguistic exploration of the speech habits we love to hate - and why our "like"s  and "literally"s actually make us better communicatorsParanoid about the "ums" and "uhs" that pepper your presentations? Concerned that people notice your vocal fry? Bewildered by "hella" or the meteoric rise of "so"?  What if these features of our speech weren't a sign of cultural and linguistic degeneration, but rather, some of the most dynamic and revolutionary tools at our disposal?In Like, Literally, Dude, linguist Valerie Fridland shows how we can re-imagine these forms as exciting new linguistic frontiers rather than our culture's impending demise.