OVERUSE OF "SO"

There not only is a new sheriff in town in the form of a "different" type of president of the USA (whether you approve of him or not), but a new word has crept into the American language in the last year or so. That word is SO. People on television, radio, and in personal conversations are prefacing their statements, and especially, but not limited to, answers to questions with the word SO. "So that is what was said", "So you were told that", "So that is what I think", and on and on, ad infinitum. It isn't that the use of SO to start a statement or answer a question is by its self a grievous error in speech, but similar to the adjective VERY it is the over use that quickly becomes extremely annoying. I realize many native American speakers are completely oblivious to this incongruous speech habit as they are with other inane speech habits and even downright errors such as misapplying objective and subjective pronouns ("her" for "she" and "him" for "he" or vice-versa for example). These and other errors I have chronicled in previous essays including in "Misused or Abused Words and Phrases", "Updated Words & Phrases Abuse", and "Further Thoughts on Dissimilation". I have done my best to educate the American public. That may sound elitist and condescending, so be it. A rhetorical question could be should I not attempt to educate people in their own speech? Before this relatively recent overuse of prefacing statements or answers to questions with the word SO, what did speakers say instead? Mostly they used such words as "therefore", "however", and "look" but using no prefacing word was the usual course of speaking. Ah, the good old days! Actually they were not so good after all. However, compared to now while speech may not have changed much for good or ill, the incivility and downright rudeness in discourse as it apples to social norms and in particular to politics has doubtless increased in the last couple of years. This is deplorable and even dangerous to the well being of the country and should be condemned by all. Is it? Perhaps to some degree by some, but unfortunately not by everyone. This country has survived a renting of its social fabric in the past. The most obvious example is the American Civil War. But there does nor yet appear to be an Abraham Lincoln on the scene to keep the country, liberals and conservatives, from tearing each other and with them the whole country apart.