So . . . I could have attached this to the original thread at https://www.degreeinfo.com/index.php?threads/so.50323, but didn’t want to necromance a 2017 thread that, while a lot of fun, ended up going off topic. So I’ll just reprint the original post in that thread . . . So here I am in Arkansas, where I decided to take a quick break before heading west toward Dallas, TX. So I had a little time to kill, so I thought I’d post a bit of penses on something that I’ve begun to find extremely grating… So I’m in a new truck and haven’t yet gotten around to installing Sirius XM, which I always keep tuned to the On Broadway channel (theatre geek that I am). So instead, I’ve taken to listening to a lot of NPR, the second best set of radio stations out there (although me again may disagree with that). So for the past week, I’ve been listening to lots of NPR. So, have you noticed anything about this post so far? So until this point, I’ve begun every sentence with “so.” So I’ve noticed that lots of commentators seem to do the same thing. A host asks someone a question and the answer always seem to begin with, “So…,” even when it makes no sense. Everyone has their particular speech quirks, but the “So Factor” has hit me as being more prevalent over the past week than it ever has in the past. At first I seemed to notice only women doing it (i.e., experts of the female persuasion), but over the past few days I’m picking up just as many instances of guys (as in experts of the male persuasion) doing it. So (to paraphrase Reagan, “There I go again…”) I’m beginning to wonder if this is an NPR thingey. I could compare it with other talk channels, but I can’t quite bring myself to get that heavy a dose of the right wing. Perhaps me again can enlighten us: Do guests who are interviewed by Limbaugh, Praeger, Ingraham, Beck, Hannity, Coulter, et al., do the “so” thing as well? This is beginning to bug me more than “um.” In my usual listening of Sirius XM On Broadway, when I hear actors interviewed, it seems that they say “um” at least once or twice in every sentence. On stage, they can perform lines without a flaw, but when they do an off-the-cuff interview, it’s “um” city. I’ve often felt that the most valuable course I took in high school was public speaking for that course has spent the past few years directing plays and musicals at a Philly-area college, and every time I see him (some 40 years later) I’m reminded of how grateful I am to have taken that course. Now, every time I hear someone on the radio with vocal flubs, I wonder why they never took a course in public speaking. So . . . enough of a break. I’m off to Dallas, then, of course, who knows where. So . . . why was I reminded of this thread when watching the most recent Dem debates? Because, it turns out, that Elizabeth Warren is mega-guilty of doing the “So” thingey. At one point, she was doing it at the beginning of every sentence. I tend to cringe when I hear someone do that in an intereview – the NPR commentators have gotten even worse than when I wrote the original post in 2017 – but I would think that major candidates for the Presidency would at least have a speech coach or someone who dry-runs the debates with them. As Belushi would say, “But nooooooooooo…”
Steve, Like, I get what you are saying but... like, I think you may be overly sensitive. Like, what is so wrong with an extra so; like, get over it.
