Date:  Fri, 1 Dec 1995 11:20:13 -0700

From:  Laurie M Bowman <bowman[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]U.ARIZONA.EDU>

Subject: Re: So fun



On Thu, 30 Nov 1995, Peter McGraw wrote:



> A colleague just asked me whether I'd ever heard the expression "so fun".

>

> It sounds odd to me, and I THINK I'd say "such fun" or "so much fun", but

> I'm not 100% sure that I might not have said "so fun" experimentally as a

> kid, or that I have never heard anyone else say it. I can't quite get to

> the bottom of my own usage grammatically, since I'm pretty sure that when

> I say "It was fun", I'm thinking fun(adj.) and not fun(noun), and if this

> is the case, the adverb "so" would be appropriate, not the adjectivess

> "such" or "so much".

>

> My colleague says her daughter-in-law, who is from California, says it

> all the time, and she wonders if it's California regional usage. If so,

> maybe it's regional elsewhere as well. Or is it just idiolectal?

>

> Any thoughts?

>

> Peter McGraw

> Linfield College

> McMinnville, OR

>

I know I say "so fun" all the time, and so do a lot of younger (i.e. up

to about 30!) people I know. I'm originally from the St. Louis, Missouri

area.



I was wondering about another usage of "fun", which again I use all the

time. Besides the usual use of "fun" as describing an event (e.g. a

party), I'll also use "fun" in describing objects. For example, if

someone was wearing a shirt that had a really interesting pattern or was

brightly colored, I'd say, "Wow, what a fun shirt!" I could even say,

"That shirt is so fun." Is this strictly regional, or is it an age

thing?? (I'm 25, by the way, if it matters.)



Laurie Bowman

LInguistics Department

University of Arizona, Tucson

bowman[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]aruba.ccit.arizona.edu