"So big a house"

[Joseph Salmons]

I've been corresponding with someone who's working on the history of
the construction illustrated in the subject line, as it evolved
across a couple of West Germanic languages. It's not central to what
he's working on, but a question has come up about its current status:
The construction has been described as obsolescent, but it seems to
be common enough. (A quick search of ads-l and Language Log doesn't
turn up any discussions, and DARE hasn't quite gotten to the relevant
part of the alphabet, but it is a little awkward to look for and I
could easily have missed something.)

Everybody I've asked says it's grammatical, but some people seem to
think it's how other people talk: One man wondered if it was more
likely to be female than male speech, but no woman I've asked shares
that view. A Canadian said it sounded American, and so on. One
Wisconsinite did say that she was corrected when she used it in
California -- to 'so big OF a house'. For me, it's distinctly spoken
usage -- in any writing beyond informal email I'd probably use 'such a'.

Does anybody know of work on this in contemporary English? Any
obvious patterns of social or regional variation to it?

Thanks,
Joe

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org