Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

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539 Glossary for any unfamiliar terms

Grammar across turns and sentences | 253

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Do that

is often preferred in contrastive situations:

A: I also think that if someone knows that they are terminally ill … at the

moment they’ve not got that right to 

ask the doctor to switch the machine

off

. 

B: Euthanasia. 

A: I think they ought to be able to do that rather than suffer.

SO AS A SUBSTITUTE FORM

134

So substituting for an adjective

So

can substitute for an adjective predicative phrase:

It was the house that had been 

empty

, years ago. It had remained 

so for a long

time.

I am 

angry

. I have been 

so, many years.

Cataphoric reference to an adjective complement is also possible with so, but it is

very infrequent and rather formal:

He was, and remains 

so, 

very conscious of his responsibilities

.