I so miss you / I miss you so much

boki

unread,

Jan 2, 2003, 1:22:20 AM1/2/03

to

Hi All:

I so miss you

I miss you so much

could someone explan them?

thanks a lot.

Boki.

AWILLIS957

unread,

Jan 2, 2003, 5:11:34 AM1/2/03

to

>Subject: I so miss you / I miss you so much
>From: boki...@ms21.hinet.net (boki)

"So" is used to intensify the feeling expressed. It's like saying "I really
miss you", or "I really really miss you", or "I miss you very much" or "I miss
you very very much". That sort of thing is done in informal English rather than
formal..

Peasemarch.

John Lawler

unread,

Jan 2, 2003, 5:13:24 PM1/2/03

to

boki <boki...@ms21.hinet.net> writes:

>I so miss you

>I miss you so much

>could someone explan them?

They're both bad style.

"So...that" is a coordinating conjunction, like "such...that".
There are other uses of "so", but they're all implicit comparisons.

You use "so...that" to make a comparison between the adjective or adverb
following "so" and the clause following "that":

I miss you so much (that) I've worn out the door by staring.
He was so tired (that) he was asleep the last hundred miles he drove.

Since the "that" complementizer can be deleted, some people forget it's
supposed to be there, and neglect to include the comparison clause after
it, making "so" into a cheap intensifier. However, its use in this way is
emblematic of sloppy thinking and writing, and should be avoided.
I always mark it down in papers submitted to me.

If you must use "so" or "so much", be *sure* to include a comparison
clause, whether it uses a "that" or not.

-John Lawler http://www.umich.edu/~jlawler U Michigan Linguistics Dept
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Because in our brief lives, we catch so little of the vastness of
history, we tend too much to think of language as being solid as a
dictionary, with granite-like permanence, rather than as the rampant
restless sea of metaphor that it is." -- Julian Jaynes

Pan

unread,

Jan 2, 2003, 8:14:59 PM1/2/03

to

On Thu, 02 Jan 2003 22:13:24 GMT, jla...@rygar.gpcc.itd.umich.edu
(John Lawler) wrote:

>boki <boki...@ms21.hinet.net> writes:
>
>>I so miss you
>
>>I miss you so much
>
>>could someone explan them?
>
>They're both bad style.

[snip]

Not in speech. I don't love "I so miss you," but "I miss you so much"
is a time-honored, meaningful expression.

I think you're being overly academic about this. [big smile]

Michael (fellow academic [chuckle])

GrapeApe

unread,

Jan 2, 2003, 9:57:44 PM1/2/03

to

>>>I so miss you
>>
>>>I miss you so much
>>
>>>could someone explan them?
>>
>>They're both bad style.
>[snip]
>
>Not in speech. I don't love "I so miss you," but "I miss you so much"
>is a time-honored, meaningful expression.
>
>I think you're being overly academic about this. [big smile]
>
>Michael (fellow academic [chuckle])

I like "I miss you this much", accompanied by a [gesture that appears to be
describing the fish that got away].

I also enjoy "I am so love you".

Pan

unread,

Jan 2, 2003, 11:28:02 PM1/2/03

to

That's nice but either child-like or/and joking.

>I also enjoy "I am so love you".

You do, eh? For people who come from what non-English-speaking
country?

Michael