[Ads-l] Sentence-final though / tho / doe

Joel S. Berson Berson at ATT.NET
Thu Nov 6 18:06:39 UTC 2014


At 11/6/2014 07:33 AM, Jonathan Lighter wrote:

>I've been noticing the final "so" for years, maybe even a decade or more.
>
>It's like an afterthought, as though the speaker thinks more could or
>should be said, but doesn't know what or why.

I am embarrassed to admit that I use it often, but I know what more 
could/should be said.

Joel


>Maybe it encourages the interlocutor to suggest something.
>
>Like, "so what?"
>
>JL
>
>On Thu, Nov 6, 2014 at 7:23 AM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Neal Whitman <nwhitman at AMERITECH.NET>
> > Subject:      Re: Sentence-final though / tho / doe
> >
> > 
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > One difference: sentence-final "but" connects the uttered thought with a
> > lat=
> > er one that's left unexpressed, but sentence-final "though" connects it
> > with=
> >  whatever was said previously.
> >
> > This reminds me that I've also seen a lot of sentence-final "so", with an
> > un=
> > expressed obvious consequence, like "and that's why I didn't do what I
> > menti=
> > oned earlier." For example, "I was going to wash the car but it rained so."
> >
> > Neal=20
> >
> > > On Nov 5, 2014, at 9:11 AM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU> wrote:
> > >=20
> > > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > ------------------=
> > -----
> > > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > > Poster:       Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
> > > Subject:      Re: Sentence-final though / tho / doe
> > >
> > --------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> > -----
> > >=20
> > >> On Nov 4, 2014, at 7:42 PM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net>
> > wrote:
> > >>=20
> > >> ---------------------- Information from the mail header =3D
> > > -----------------------
> > >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > >> Poster:       Neal Whitman <nwhitman at AMERITECH.NET>
> > >> Subject:      Sentence-final though / tho / doe
> > >> =3D
> > >
> > --------------------------------------------------------------------------=
> > =3D
> > > -----
> > >> =3D20
> > >> Anyone have anything to say about sentence-final "though / tho /
> > doe"?=3D=
> > 20=3D
> > >=20
> > >> I've heard it from my son and his peers, and seen it on some
> > internet=3D2=
> > 0=3D
> > >=20
> > >> memes. On the surface, it's nothing more than the ordinary=3D20
> > >> sentence-final "though", but its (possibly over-perceived)
> > frequency,=3D2=
> > 0=3D
> > >=20
> > >> and presence in a very informal register, often in AAE-influenced=3D20
> > >> language (as indicated by the "doe" spelling) make me think there's =3D
> > > more=3D20
> > >> to the story. Below are a lot of Urban Dictionary entries I've =3D
> > > collected=3D20
> > >> for it....
> > >=20
> > > not in my files.  vaguely reminiscent of a discussion of sentence-final
> > =3D=
> >
> > > but/so/then initiated on the newsgroup sci.lang in 2006 by a poster =3D
> > > using the name sylh (then at smhttiki at hotmail.com ), with examples from
> > =3D=
> >
> > > Scottish, NZ, and Australian English (to which one poster added Hawaiian
> > =3D=
> >
> > > Pidgin).
> > >=20
> > > arnold
> > >=20
> > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
>
>
>--
>"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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