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”).

中文翻译：

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“怀恨在上世纪”：GenX So 作为名词短语的修饰语的使用

本文重点讨论美式英语中的 X is so NP 结构，例如“Holding gudges is so last Century”（SOAP，As the World Turns，2002）。借鉴美国肥皂剧语料库 (Davies 2011-)，本研究的目的是提供名词短语修饰的分布模式的说明，包括修饰名词短语 (NP) 类型的偏好和随之而来的差异如此的意思。分析表明，根据关于强化的主体化理论（Athanasiadou 2007），它的功能范围也在从强化到强调。研究结果表明这些含义的分布几乎是互补的，在肯定句（尤其是宾语代词和名称；“它是如此星际迷航”；SOAP，我们生活的日子，2004 年）中，so（“非常”）占主导地位，并在否定话语中强调 so（“绝对”）（尤其是使用预先修改的 NP，例如“这不是约会”；SOAP，One Life to Live，2007 年）。此外，so 的强化使用仅限于表现出类似形容词的特征并邀请转喻引用的 NP（Gonzálvez-García 2014）。所以几乎完全用 copula be 来证明，这可能暗示了在这个结构中工作的限制。关于 GenX 在角色组中的分布，编剧将大多数话语归因于（年轻）女性，无论是在群体中的标记频率还是分散性。本文表明，与语言变化和形容词强化（“so good”）变化有关的观察结果也适用于 NP 强化（“so 2020”）。