Why does it seem that more and more people start responses to a question with the word so? After hearing our discussion about sentence-initial so, a Nashville, Tennessee, churchgoer calls to say that he often hears something similar at the beginning of a prayer after a sermon or to conclude a service. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Starting Sentences With So in Church”
We’re forever being asked about the practice of starting a sentence with the word so.
Right.
We’re saying I’m hearing it more and more.
And this prompted Ian from Nashville to call us and leave us a voicemail.
He said, I have a really prominent example that comes to mind for me in my experience as a churchgoing person.
I hear this a ton as a lead-in to prayers, especially public prayers, whether it’s a worship leader or a pastor is praying in front of a group.
And it often does have this sort of, we’re wrapping this up, or I’m recapping what has been said already.
But to start a prayer with, so God, we blah, blah, blah from there, I just hear that all the time.
And I just thought I’d throw that bit of data into the sentence, initial so conversation.
I thought that was really interesting that it’s used to start prayers in church.
The term that I always heard when I was growing up in a Southern Baptist church was just.
Just when you’re informally praying, you would say, just, just, Lord Jesus, just.
Just give us, just help us.
Yeah, just help us, and we just ask.
And I just thought that was really just thought.
Yeah, so it’s doing that discourse job of providing the continuation of thought, or as he was saying, the summary of thought, right?
Yes.
And that’s the question that we get is when it comes up in interviews where the interviewer asks a question and the interviewee responds with a sentence beginning with so.
Right.
The reason that we did X is, you know, and that is a particular so.
It’s flagged people’s attention repeatedly over the last 10 years.
Yes.
And I can see concluding a sermon or concluding a little.
Interesting.
Yeah, discussion.
That’s a nice addition to the conversation.
I know, right?
If you want to know more about Sentence Initial So, since we haven’t fully talked about here, there are at least two separate times we’ve talked about on the show before, and you can find those on our website at waywordradio.org.
