Turn-Initial Discourse Marker So in Informal British English Conversation: A Corpus-Based Diachronic Analysis

Abstract

This study investigates the diachronic change of the turn-initial discourse marker so in informal British English conversation, drawing on two spoken corpora compiled in the 1990s and 2010s. The turn-initial position is particularly important in conversation, as it provides the first cue as to how speakers align with prior talk and project upcoming action. The analysis reveals a marked increase in normalized frequency over time, with so becoming more widespread across speakers regardless of age or gender. Functionally, elaboration remains the most frequent use in both corpora, but the distribution of other functions shifts over time. Sequential progression and topic management occur more often in the Spoken BNC2014, while question initiation shows a marked decline, emerging as the most significant functional change. Floor management, though less frequent, continues to serve as a resource for negotiating turns, whereas answer-prefacing so is only marginally attested, indicating its limited role in casual conversation. These findings demonstrate that turn-initial so has become more widely used in British English casual conversation, showing both quantitative expansion and functional rebalancing.