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Part of
Theory and Practice in Functional-Cognitive Space
Edited by María de los Ángeles Gómez González, Francisco José Ruiz de Mendoza Ibáñez and Francisco Gonzálvez-García
[Studies in Functional and Structural Linguistics 68] 2014
► pp. 271–294

“That’s so a construction!”

Some reflections on innovative uses of “so” in Present-day English

This paper provides a fine-grained analysis of the “X is so N(P)” constructionin present-day English, in which the noun in the A slot necessarily involvesmetonymic inferencing and can be determinerless, even if it is countable. Thisconstruction conveys a positive or negative assessment by the speaker/writerof a given person, entity, event or state of affairs, with some interpretationsexhibiting a higher degree of conventionalization than others. From a syntagmaticviewpoint, the construction under scrutiny instantiates a step-wise,gradual transition from noun to adjective in the A slot (e.g. “That’s so applepie”< “That’s so cool”). Our analysis also reveals the existence of paradigmaticsets with other intensifiers (e.g. “very”, “quite”, “totally”, “really”, “too”) in predicativeand attributive contexts.

Keywords: construction, constructional change, intensifier, metonymy, subjectivity
Published online: 22 July 2014
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/sfsl.68.12gon
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