"So, in answer to your question..."

In JoefromC's initial post, Joe.

"I've noticed a disturbing trend recently -- people, in response to questions, starting their answers with the word "so."

Then on page two of this thread;

JTT quoted:
So it is widely believed that the recent ascendancy of “so” began in Silicon Valley. The journalist Michael Lewis picked it up when researching his 1999 book “The New New Thing”: “When a computer programmer answers a question,” he wrote, “he often begins with the word ‘so.’ ” Microsoft employees have long argued that the “so” boom began with them.

Joefrom Chicago replied: Yes. That's exactly what I'm talking about. Figures it would start with Microsoft.

You entered this thread with the number four posting, Joe, wherein you illustrated that you hadn't the foggiest notion of the 'so' under discussion.

Joe Nation: Wait a minute, I say (or write) "So", all the time. I'll bet if you looked at my thread responses , it's at the start of 5 out of six of them. I don't where I picked it up. (Vonnegut?)

You didn't understand the 'so' being discussed back on page one. Nothing at all has changed for you, has it?

How did you miss the key word, 'recently' in JoefromC's posting and in mine, describing the recent ascendancy of this 'so'? Why would JoefromC suddenly start complaining about a 'so' that was around in the time of JFK - a half century ago?

Well, JoeNation, you asked a question and I answered it. Where are you now?



When you seek to discern differences between grammatical/semantic nuances, it requires that you try to present accurate representations of the very thing you want to study.

This,

It occurs to me that no less a figure than John F. Kennedy used to begin answers to questions with "So, let me say this about that..... .",

falls somewhat short of that goal.

I hear that a lot too, and find it not just stupid, but a bit like the person is ignoring your question and just starts talking about something else, but is a response. "Whats your name?" "So my name is Frank"
"How old are you Frank?" "So I'm 30"
I find it really annoying.

Yeah, it's like your question interrupted their train of thought.

Maybe, "so as I was discussing/saying, ..."

Does 'like' also bother you, Joe, or are you used to that?

Run along, pipsqueak, you have a question that needs answering elsewhere.

You're really good at avoidance, aren't you, Joe? Have you scored any ambulance clients this week?

And your reply to this was "Yeah"?

Stick to law, Joe You don't wanna be bad at two things.

The one that bothers me is the word 'they', or other pronouns referring to a person and then the person identified.

Well my sister, she did this or that.

Or Bob and Janet, they came over the other night.

I’m glad to hear it bothers someone else. The only people I hear begin an answer to a question this way are well educated. I am currently listening to NPR and a doctor just answered a question “So...”. It seems as though the person answering this way thinks themself so well informed on the topic that they just cannot wait to give his/her response. Whatever the reason, I find it is obnoxious.

Some recording artist also began his reply to an interviewer's question on NPR last evening.

This thread immediately came to mind.

Some of the examples, like the girl saying at the end "so... yeah" are not the same. She is making a summary, a conclusion (without saying it), but it is a concluding "so". It alludes to whatever else she said before, and then at the end,
saying "so (then here would be the summary of what was said before the concluding statement)... yeah!"

I've noticed it mostly in young people who are usually university/college graduates, who perhaps want to give an air of importance to whatever they are saying.

The Perry Mason example is also different, because he begins his remarks with a so, but he is then referring to whatever facts were presented to the jury, etc and he says, "so, members of the jury, after carefully blah blah blah)

What this thread is about, is people who begin an answer to a question with a "so", but are not making a summary or concluding remark. I've hear this a lot on NPR, on DemocracyNow! also, on British radio/TV etc.

There is a show on NPR called Le Show, where the host, Harry Shearer, has begun a segment called "the so's of the week", where he plays many examples. Many times the interviewee answers several questions in a row, all beginning with so. Or with right! so

I find it annoying.

I think the use of the word 'so' is similar the the use of the word 'like'.
Unfortunately, these juvenile trends start with teenagers attempting
to follow others in their attempt to fit in and be "cool" or "with it".
I'm noticing the word "so", in response to a question, by well educated
individuals quite frequently, and find myself right here, confirming the
fact that others have noticed this same foolishness too.

That's not true, Chuck. Those uses of 'like' are all fully grammatical structures. I believe there are several slightly different grammar uses. Some are similar to the adult 'well'.

That they are of speech, informal speech, there is no doubt but that doesn't make them wrong or bad. They are so well entrenched in the language that you hear 40 plus folks using them.

Just as there is no stopping LIKE, so too there is no stopping the new SO.

I thought of you and your thread Joe, while listening to an Irishwoman being interviewed on CBC radio. A woman who responded to every question with "So, . . ." That lasted until she had responded to about a half dozen questions. It is a disease which has infiltrated the entire English-speaking world.

I hear it so often now that I no longer think of adding examples to this thread. It is indeed everywhere.

It appears to me ( when someone begins the answer to a question with "So..." , especially in a public setting) that the person is using that word to fix the attention of the audience and give the appearance of authority, as per a physics professor at a blackboard full of equations.

It appears to me that when someone begins the answer to a question with "So..." ( especially in a public setting ), that the word is used to fix the attention of the audience and to project an image of authority, as per a physics professor at a chalkboard full of equations.

It appears to me that when someone begins the answer to a question with"So..." (especially in a public setting ), that the word is used to fix the attention of the audience and to project an image of authority as per a physics professor at a chalkboard full of equations.

But even German does not use "So" at the beginning to a reply to an information question. A. Wo wohnen Sie? B. *So ich wohne / or / * So wohne ich in Stuttgart. In either case, "so" would sound totally superfluous and gratuitous.