So… I keep hearing sentences starting up with “So.” Where did this all come from — and why are people doing it so much? See the BBC article on the subject at….
http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9644000/9644002.stm
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So what’s the problem? There are a “few” (very few) instances where “so” may be appropriate, but I think it’s a habit of people who are trying to be writers.
I have been noticing this affectation being used more and more by interviewees on TV news shows and talk shows. It’s SO annoying.
It makes me crazy!
Annoying, affected. You hear it a lot on NPR from supposedly well-educated “experts” but now even ordinary middlebrows begin speaking with, “So…”
My biggest peeve is people who answer your question starting with the word “so”. It seems to happen almost all the time now. It’s totally irritating. A more appropriate “beginning word” to an answer may be “Well,…” (indicating that the answerer is thinking about what they’re going to say. “So” seems to mean that they only barely heard your question and are just saying what they would have said anyway, as thought they were continuing a thought process that had already started in their minds, or your question triggered a rehearsed”automatic” response that required hardly any thought at all, which is insulting.) Or just ANSWER and skip the “so”! (probably the best option). If I ask someone directions, it is disturbing to me if they answer “so you walk down 3 blocks and make a right”. It sounds WEIRD. I would expect them to say, “Okay what you do is, you walk down 3 blocks and make a right”, or even better and more direct, “walk down 3 blocks and make a right”. “So” actually means “therefore”. Would a person answer “Therefore walk down 3 blocks…” as if to say, “well you asked me directions and therefore here is my answer”? It simply sounds awkward, illiterate and wrong, and in my opinion it IS wrong. I once had an English teacher who taught us that if a word adds nothing to a sentence, just omit it. A lot of people need to omit this annoying “so”, and fast!
This is now rampant in interviews on Public Radio, both the headquarters shows, and the ones they simply air. It is horrendous. I can overlook it when the show is nrrative or story based journalism, but from the news anchors and their news associates, it is becoming pervasive. Hearing it so often makes it very difficult to avoid slipping into, much like the adverbial “Like,” from Valley Girl casual dialect.
It feels as if its detractors might be misunderstanding the use of “So”, or they have a highly prescriptive static approach to language rather than dynamic usage approach. However, perhaps it is used a bit too freely. Below is a link to an article I found helpful:
http://www.dictionary.com/e/sentence-initial-so/
Brief excerpt: In a 2010 New York Times article Anand Giridharadas sums up insight Bolden supplied via email: “To begin a sentence with ‘oh,’…is to focus on what you have just remembered and your own concerns. To begin with ‘so,’…is to signal that one’s coming words are chosen for their relevance to the listener.”