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One for the reader versed in corpus linguistics, this interesting study compares various linguistic features across transcripts (not scripts) of Friends episodes and a similar number of words from a corpus of American conversation.  The aim was to see if Friends talk was similar to natural conversational language, and to examine whether sitcoms would be a suitable resource for English as a Second Language students.  The outcomes were interesting (heck, none of you regular readers are going to read this and not want me to spoil it, are you!).  Friends has less vague language (the interlocutors include the audience, so things must be made that bit clearer), more emotional language (possibly due to the situation), more slang and expletives (missing out the f and s words by being on the telly means they use more slightly less contentious words) and more informal language – this last possibly an over-compensation on the part of the writers.

Interesting stuff, showing that sitcom writers and actors have a grasp of the rules of natural language without having studied them in the depth that some of us go to.