We have some 20 somethings in our IT Department, and whenever they begin to explain something techy to me, they start with, "So...blah, blah, blah." Therefore, I thought that use of "so" was something seen in the younger generation.

Today, at a conference, two physicians used "so" very often when people asked them questions. Now, they were both rather young, for physicians. However, physicians are never that young because of their 4 years of college and 4 years of medical school and 1 year of internship and 4-8 years of residency and 1-3 years of fellowship... Therefore, this "so" for starting sentences doesn't seem to be age related.

Is this something new? Or has it been around for awhile and I am just realizing it? Or are these just isolated situations?

So

Folks have been saying it as long as I can remember. You've never heard somebody say nu?

Starting a sentence with "so" is not wrong; it depends on the rest of the sentence as to how good the overall construction is.

But I would suggest than any sentence that starts with the phrase "That's so not..." is unlikely to be one that meets with my own approval!

I think this is the recency illusion. Once you start noticing something you notice every occurrence of it. I think it's been around for a long time though I lack the research skills to look into just how long.

quote:

Folks have been saying it as long as I can remember.

Yes, I've heard it before. I was not clear.

People do say "so" when starting sentences. But in these cases, it has been with every, single answer to a question. I don't believe I have seen that before, though perhaps Bob is correct.

It might be a verbal tic in some, but I do not think it is one that is recent.

The OED has an entry for "so" as an introductory particle. They say it's common in Shakespeare, for instance:

So so, quoth he; these lets attend the time. - The Rape of Lucrece

My question should have been more clear, as I indicated above. While I've seen it (and probably said it myself) when answering questions, these examples (two very young people in our IT Department and two 30-40 year-old physicians) literally said it every time they answered a question.

Perhaps that's what all of you have seen before. If I say, for example, "What is your favorite word?" You'd say, "So...my favorite word is "epicaricacy." And so on with every single question. In my opinion, that kind of frequency is terribly annoying and makes me focus on the "so" and not the answer.

I had a teacher once who prefaced every answer to every question with "no"." No, you're right", I once heard him say. So, I have been so annoyed that I shall never start another answer with it, ever. So, how'd I do?

So, not so well.

Here might be the difference. When we were talking about "cool" in another thread, several said that it should only be used with informal communication. I think that goes for "so" when it's used to answer questions. Therefore, the physicians, in this formal meeting (with attendees from all over the world), answering "so..." to every question annoyed me. It would have been similar to their saying, "Cool!" had someone told them about their use of the Angoff standard setting procedure.