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word choice - "… things like this." vs. "… things like that."


Yesterday on talk radio an interviewee speaking about Sudanese Northerner's being forced into the mountains and away from their farmlands by the Sudanese Army said the result was:



The men would leave and go foraging to gather nuts and berries, things like this.



I don't know where exactly the punctuation belongs since it was on the radio, so I did my best to put the comma in the right place before the phrase in question.


Is his phrasing correct? Or would ending with the phrase:



… things like that.



be correct. Are they both acceptable? Are there meaningful or grammatical differences between the two?


For context, he didn't enumerate similar activities in the related line of questioning before or after the above, nor did he explicitly reference anything else he said in prior areas of discussions.



Answer



I think what you're bumping into is not a question of grammar, but just an idiomatic usage. The only time 'things like this' sounds right to my ears is when there's an example in hand to compare to. And even then it feels a little awkward.



Gesturing toward the fruit basket, he said, "We're looking for apples, oranges... things like this."



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