This paper explores the use of so-called GenX so as a modifier of verb phrases, as exemplified in “He should so be in jail” (SOAP, DAYS, 2005). Drawing on over 1350 relevant tokens retrieved from the Corpus of American Soap Operas (SOAP) (Davies 2011-, 100 million words from 2001-2012), the main purpose of the present study is to provide robust empirical evidence for various findings yielded by small-scale studies and by introspection. The results corroborate some of the previous findings, while others, particularly those based on introspection, are challenged in light of empirical (counter)evidence. The data show that preverbal so is very flexible in that it can occur in various syntactic slots and with a large number of different verbs (wide collocational range) and with different kinds of verbs (full, modal, auxiliary). In a large data set (such as that from SOAP), GenX so is even attested in questions, before auxiliaries in affirmative uses, and after the negator not. Moreover, preverbal so is expanding its functional range from intensification to emphasis.

本文探讨了使用所谓的GEnx发动机的如此作为动词短语的修饰语，如“他应该就这样在监狱里”为例（SOAP，天，2005年）。利用从美国肥皂剧（SOAP）语料库中检索到的1350多个相关标记（Davies 2011-，2001-2012年为1亿个单词），本研究的主要目的是为小样本产生的各种发现提供有力的经验证据。规模研究和内省。该结果证实了先前的一些发现，而另一些，尤其是基于内省的发现，则根据经验（反证）证据受到质疑。数据显示，前语言等等它具有很大的灵活性，因为它可以出现在各种句法位置中，并且具有大量不同的动词（并置范围宽）和不同种类的动词（完整，模态，辅助）。在一个大的数据集（如从SOAP），台GEnx所以即使在证明题，在肯定使用助剂之前，和否定器后不。此外，语前所以正在扩大其功能范围从集约化，以强调。