2024/07/10 by Syelle Graves · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Discourse Analysis in Language Studies #Language and cultural evolution #Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies
paper · doi:10.1215/00031283-11466554
openalex publication_date 2024/07/10 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/22
Abstract This study investigates attitudes toward prefacing the answer to a question from an interlocutor with the discourse marker so, which has been tentatively found to be on the rise since the 1990s. Functions of this form, informally referred to as “backstory so,” include marking added background or length that is unexpected by the questioner. This article presents (1) evidence in the popular media that it is perceived as new and overtly associated with negative attributes (annoying, condescending) and differing stereotypes (scientific experts, Valley Girls) and (2) the results of a matched-guise test that investigated whether those associations remain indexed by so-prefacing answers when attitudes are elicited implicitly. Statistically significant results of t-tests and a principal component analysis suggest that prefacing answers with so was perceived more negatively than prefacing with the control discourse marker well in both a female and male voice on a status axis (e.g., less educated and less intelligent), as expected. On a solidarity axis, the male so guise also earned poorer evaluations than the control, but the female so guise was not evaluated quite as negatively, a difference not reflected in the overt attitudes. The so guises were also more linked to Valley Girl and Tech Bro speech.