so = 'absolutely; utterly; such'

[Jonathan Lighter]

Contrast with long-established "That is not a Rosalie song!" "It is
*so* a Rosalie song!"

I.e., "indeed; in fact."

JL

On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 1:04 PM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at STANFORD.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: so = 'absolutely; utterly; such'
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Dec 9, 2011, at 8:48 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)
>
> some examples:
>
>  Got Faith? this is so a sign I'm marrying Tim Tebow?
>  So today I went to help at my church so we can get ready for thanksgiving and the lady said the only volunteer badge I have left is #15 -even God is letting me get his [Tim Tebow's] number -my mom was like God is trying to tell you to marry him -I think I better go get a wedding dress and can't wait to hear those wedding bells :)
> http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20111114183633AAJztxh
>
>  Popeye is SO a Capricorn!
>  He made his entry into a pre-existing (for ten years) cartoon on January 17 1929, playing a bit part. But – tres Capricorn- he was so successful that he became the star & driving force of the whole thing.
> http://mysticmedusa.com/2009/07/popeye-is-so-a-cap/
>
>  I love this song! This is so a rosalie song
> http://www.metrolyrics.com/keeps-gettin-better-lyrics-christina-aguilera.html
>
> (you need to consider the context carefully, to be sure that the _so_ isn't the Rejoinder Emphasis _so_ (what the Yale file calls "contradictory _so_"), emphatically asserting something in response to someone's denial of it.)
>
> the gloss 'definitely' or 'so (very) much' works pretty well here, while 'such' doesn't strike me as quite right.
>
> in any case, GenX (or Drama) _so_ can modify indefinite predicating Ns, but the examples don't seem to be very frequent.
>
> arnold
>
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