Reuters: "TORONTO (Reuters) - The days may be so numbered for Chandler, Monica and the rest of the gang on the final season of the hit U.S. sitcom, 'Friends', but they may have left a lasting imprint on contemporary English, with their perpetual use of 'so' -- as in 'so cool.'
A study by researchers at the University of Toronto suggests the language used in the popular television show both reflected and influenced speaking trends.
In the report 'So Cool; So Weird; So Innovative', to be presented this weekend at the American Dialect Society's annual meeting in Boston, linguistics professor Sali Tagliamonte and co-author Chris Roberts focused on intensifiers -- words used to emphasise a point -- and found that the language used by the TV characters not only mirrored what goes on in the real world, but actually pushes it forward."