Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
'So'
Slowly but surely here in metroland more & more people are using the word 'so' at the beginning of some of their scentences. Like it or not, it's here to stay a while until another word steps up to the plate. But where did it come from?
An article for the New York Times, ‘So’ Pushes to the Head of the Line written in May 2010, points out that 'For most of its life, “so” has principally been a conjunction, an intensifier and an adverb. What is new is its status as the favored introduction to thoughts, its encroachment on the territory of “well,” “oh,” “um” and their ilk.'
Various linguistics scholars/authors are quoted in the article with one believing it rose to prominence with tech geeks - Microsoft employees even claim 'the boom' started with them'.
Dr Bolden says, '“So” seems also to reflect our fraught relationship with time. “Well” and “um” are open-ended; “so” is impatient. It leans forward, seeks a consequence, sums things up. It is a word befitting a culture in which things worth doing must bear fruit now ...'
But you don't have to listen to these commentators. As always with the web there's plenty of comment on the rise of 'so' here.
So, we're only 3 years behind the Californians & New Yorkers. 
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Bethany Burrow Atherton on
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I think I also use it to cut through imaginary rambling, as though I've just had the long conversation, but my initial statement starts with "so" - I think I do it to add emphasis, as though to say "I've started talking now, so listen to me", as one would be doing in the rambling conversation idea.
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Permalink Reply by Clive Carter on
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So some people have pet phrases. And some of them unconsciously use them too much.
It was hard to concentrate on this instructional video. Only 3 x "sos". But, not counting 2 x "went ahead", this commentary uses "go ahead" nearly 30 times, which in a 13 minute video, is two a minute. That phrase adds every bit as much as "going forward" or "securing the future" so beloved of PR firms.
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Permalink Reply by Dave on
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Yes, it down to when a word is used and how often. This following example shows that rather than being instructive or allowing communication is flow the use of (in this case) the word 'so' ends up confusing the points the person is trying to convey;
A dispatch on National Public Radio last month, in which a quarter of sentences began with “so”: “So it’s, I think, the fifth largest in the nation. So, but now that’s the population in general. So there are sort of two, there are two things that are circumstantial.”
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Permalink Reply by Maddy on
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I wonder if it drifted over from the German 'also' meaning 'thus' or 'therefore', but often used at the start of a sentence. I hear it all the time on radio interviews, particularly on science or factual subjects, at the start of the reply to a question. "So,..." I like it - it's short and neat, and more affirmative than 'Well,..."
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Permalink Reply by Kit on
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So has been around for a while as a framing device, with jokes, for example: 'so a man walks into a bar'...
The new use seems to be a get-to-the-point device, surely a good thing. Far more annoying are thoughtless cliches and padding: 'he loved her to bits' (sounds painful) or -- my pet hate -- 'as they say'.
When it comes to crimes against language, mine is overusing 'like'.
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