[Ads-l] Meaningless "so" at start of reply sentence

[Barretts Mail]

FWIW, it looks similar to “now” (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/now#Adverb <https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/now#Adverb>) and “well”.

Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA

> On 12 Nov 2017, at 14:12, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at MST.EDU> wrote:
> 
> Yesterday a friend asked me about something I've noticed for at least a year: On TV and radio I often hear a response to a question begin with the meaningless word so.
> 
> E.g.:
> 
> Question: Did the Democrats have a good turnout?
> 
> Answer begins: So let's look at the figures.
> 
> 
> Has this feature been treated yet in any linguistic discussions?  And is my impression correct that it is a relatively recent development (the past year or two)?
> 
> 
> Gerald Cohen


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