"like" vs "such as"
(Usage Disputes)
The Little, Brown Handbook (6th ed., HarperCollins, 1995) says:
"Strictly, _such as_ precedes an example that represents a larger
subject, whereas _like_ indicates that two subjects are comparable.
_Steve has recordings of many great saxophonists such as Ben Webster
and Lee Konitz._ _Steve wants to be a great jazz saxophonist like
Ben Webster and Lee Konitz._" Nobody would use "such as" in the
second sentence; the disputed usage is "like" in the first sentence.
Opposing it are: earlier editions of The Little, Brown Handbook
(which did not use the hedge "strictly"); the _Random House English
Language Desk Reference_ (1995); _The Globe and Mail Style Book_
(Penguin, 1995); _Webster's Dictionary & Thesaurus_ (Shooting Star
Press, 1995); _Fine Print: Reflections on the Writing Art_ by James
Kilpatrick (Andrews and McMeel, 1993); _The Wordwatcher's Guide to
Good Writing and Grammar_ by Morton S. Freeman (Writer's Digest,
1990); _Word Perfect: A Dictionary of Current English Usage_ by
John O. E. Clark (Harrap, 1987); and _Keeping Up the Style_ by
Leslie Sellers (Pitman, 1975).
The OED, first edition, in its entry on "like" (which is in a
section prepared in 1903), said that "in modern use", "like" "often
= 'such as', introducing a particular example of a class respecting
which something is predicated". Merriam-Webster Editorial
Department unearthed the following 19th-century citations for me:
"Good sense, like hers, will always act when really called upon",
Jane Austen, _Mansfield Park_, 1814; "A straight-forward,
open-hearted man, like Weston, and a rational unaffected woman, like
Miss Taylor, may be safely left to their own concerns", Jane Austen,
_Emma_, 1816; "[...] to argue that because a well-stocked island,
like Great Britain, has not, as far as is known [...]", Charles
Darwin, _Origin of the Species_, 1859.
Fowler apparently saw nothing wrong with "like" in this sense:
in the Concise Oxford Dictionary, he gave "resembling, such as"
without a usage label as one its meanings, and gave the example "a
critic like you", which he explained as "of the class that you
exemplify". And he used it himself in the passage quoted under
"'less' vs 'fewer'" above. More commonly, though, he wrote "such
... as" when using examples to define the set ("such bower-birds'
treasures as _au pied de la lettre_, _a` merveille_, [...] and
_sauter aux yeux_"), and "as" or "such as" when the words preceding
the examples sufficed to define the set ("familiar words in -o, as
_halo_ and _dado_"; "simple narrative poems in short stanzas, such
as _Chevy Chase_"). This is the same restrictive vs nonrestrictive
mentioned under "'that' vs 'which'": "Ballads, such as Chevy Chase,
can be danced to" would imply that all ballads can be danced to,
whereas "Such ballads as Chevy Chase can be danced to" would not.
"Such ... as" is now confined to formal use, and for informal
restrictive uses where the example is not introduced merely for the
sake of example, but is the actual topic of the sentence, "like" is
now obligatory: "I'm so glad to have a friend like Paul." _Guide
to Canadian English Usage_ by Margery Fee and Janice McAlpine
(Oxford, 1997, ISBN 0-19-540841-1) rightly points out that "such as"
would not be idiomatic here.
_Modern American Usage_ by Wilson Follett (Hill and Wang, 1966)
says: "_Such as_ is close in meaning to _like_ and may often be
interchanged with it. The shade of difference between them is that
_such as_ leads the mind to imagine an indefinite group of objects
[...]. The other comparing word _like_ suggests a closer
resemblance among the things compared [...]. [...P]urists object
to phrases of the type _a writer like Shakespeare_, _a leader like
Lincoln_. No writer, say these critics, _is_ like Shakespeare; and
in this they are wrong; writers are alike in many things and the
context usually makes clear what the comparison proposes to our
attention. _Such as Shakespeare_ may sound less impertinent, but
if Shakespeare were totally incomparable _such as_ would be open to
the same objection as _like_." Bernstein, in _Miss Thistlebottom's
Hobgoblins_ (Farrar, 1971), agrees, calling those who object to
"German composers like Beethoven" "nit-pickers".
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