The Sosophists posted by Richard Seymour

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 emphasize 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.

“’So’ is the new favorite -- at least among mainstream culture,” Tagliamonte told Reuters on Thursday, adding that no study has been done on why the word is so popular.