so = 'absolutely; utterly; such'

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Dec 9, 2011, at 10:16 AM, Jon Lighter wrote:

> Contrast with long-established "That is not a Rosalie song!" "It is
> *so* a Rosalie song!"
>
> I.e., "indeed; in fact."

that's the Rejoinder Emphasis interpretation -- but that interpretation isn't supported at all by the context.  the writer is commenting on Christina Aguilera's assertive song "Keeps Gettin'  Better", which (as i understand the comment) reminded her of Aguilera's song "Rosalie Hale - Fighter".  there's no denial (explicit or implicit) in the context that "Keeps Gettin' Better" is a Rosalie song.

"it's SO a Rosalie song" would be possible in this context, and that version can't be Rejoinder Emphasis, because RE requires a light accent on the auxiliary verb, and that accent prevents the auxiliary from reducing; see the Pullum & Zwicky abstract "Licensing of prosodic features by syntactic rules: The key to auxiliary reduction", here:
  http://www.stanford.edu/~zwicky/LSA97.abst.pdf

arnold

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