so = 'absolutely; utterly; such'

[Victor Steinbok]

Preference is one thing, but there are differences in distribution and
in meaning. "So" is not merely emphatic, but may have a connotation of
"truly [is]" that "such" does not have--hence JL's "absolutely".

So, "I'm so a drama queen" is not merely "I'm such a drama queen", but
closer to "I _really_ am such a drama queen". It's almost like a double
emphasis packed into one. Same with "We're SO busted!"

     VS-)

On 12/9/2011 11:48 AM, Ben Zimmer wrote:
> I think I see JL's point now. When preceding a predicate NP introduced
> by an article (as opposed to "not..."), new-style "so" might sound
> odder than usual, in a spot where one might expect emphatic "such"
> instead: "Today is *such* a cuddle day." Perhaps the
> microsyntacticians at Yale can figure out if that variety of "so" is
> less favored than others. Compare:
>
> "I am so a drama queen" (1,210 ghits)
> "I am such a drama queen" (55,600 ghits)
>
> --bgz

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