“Holding Grudges Is So Last Century”: The Use of GenX So as a Modifier of Noun Phrases

Abstract

This article focuses on the X is so NP-construction in American English, as exemplified by “Holding grudges is so last century” (SOAP, As the World Turns, 2002). Drawing on the Corpus of American Soap Operas (Davies 2011-), the aim of this study is to provide an account of the distributional pattern of noun phrase modification with so, including preferences in modified noun phrase (NP) types and concomitant differences in the meaning of so. The analyses reveal that, in line with subjectification theory on intensification (Athanasiadou 2007), so is expanding its functional range from intensification to emphasis. The findings suggest a near-complementary distribution of these meanings, with intensifying so (‘very’) dominating in affirmative sentences (especially with object pronouns and names; “It’s so Star Trek”; SOAP, Days of Our Lives, 2004), and emphatic so (‘definitely’) in negated utterances (especially with pre-modified NPs, such as “It is so not a date”; SOAP, One Life to Live, 2007). Furthermore, intensifying uses of so are restricted to NPs that exhibit adjective-like characteristics and invite metonymic referencing (Gonzálvez-García 2014). So is attested almost exclusively with the copula be, which might hint at restrictions at work in this construction. With respect to the distribution of GenX so across the character groups, the scriptwriters attributed most utterances to (younger) women, in terms of both token frequency and dispersion within the group. This paper shows that the observations pertaining to language variation and change made for adjective intensification (“ so good”) also apply to NP intensification (“ so 2020”).