So, is there a new use of so?

[Chris Waigl]

On Mon, 2 Jan 2006 17:44:31 -0800, Arnold M. Zwicky typed:

> back in july, i spent a fair amount of time looking though short
> stories and novels for ones beginning with a coordinator ("and",
> "but", or "so", in particular).  (this task was suggested by geoff
> pullum, who was asking for a colleague.)  no luck.  even the very
> experimental writers, and those famous for beginning in medias res,
> pretty much use conventional beginnings: "the", "I", proper names,
> "in", etc.

There's the example I seem to keep quoting at the moment, Virginia
Woolf's _A Room of One's Own_, which starts with "but" (in fact, the
opening paragraph has four sentences beginning with "but"[1]). But of
course this isn't fiction, but an essay, though one written in a
story-telling tone.

Thinking of this, I checked more Woolf, and indeed, the first
sentence of _Jacob's Room_ begins with "so", in direct speech:

----
"So of course," wrote Betty Flanders, pressing her heels rather deeper
in the sand, "there was nothing for it but to leave."
----

Chris Waigl

[1] Interpreting this is a common question in what they call "analyse
linguistique" exams here in France