You’re So Not Going to Believe This

Bibliographic Data

ID6032006
AuthorsUlrike Stange (0000-0002-4439-4115, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, corresponding author)
Year2017
Volume92
Issue4
Pages487-524
Publication date2017-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Speech (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0003-1283 • E-ISSN: 1527-2133
PublisherDuke University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1215/00031283-4395168
OpenAlexW2803143319
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited25

This article explores the use of so-called GenX so in constructions with future going to in American English, as exemplified by "Guys, you're so not going to believe what just happened" (Simone; All My Children, ABC, June 20, 2003). This study draws on the Corpus of American Soap Operas (https://corpus.byu.edu/soap/) to examine the development of emphasized going to (certainly/definitely/really going to are also considered) between 2001 and 2012. It analyzes approximately 2,600 tokens, highlighting differences and similarities in the use of these emphasizers. The data show: (1) so, while being less frequent than certainly and definitely, covaries with them; (2) young female characters are most likely to use GenX so; (3) so going to exhibits a fairly restricted collocational range compared to the other emphasizers, particularly in negated utterances; and (4) second-person subjects (you) favor this new construction. Naturally, differences between television dialogue and natural speech are considered

Archaeology · Linguistics · Media studies · Natural (archaeology · Sociology · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · History · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Linguistic Variation and Morphology · Philosophy · Psychology

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