Home » Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

A Way with Words, a radio show and podcast about language and linguistics.

Discussion Forum (Archived)

Please consider registering
Guest
Forum Scope


Match



Forum Options



Min search length: 3 characters / Max search length: 84 characters
The forums are currently locked and only available for read only access
sp_TopicIcon
The use of "is, is that"
Guest
1
2012/05/30 - 6:56pm

I first heard "is, is that..." used by the President. "The thing is, is that..." or "My decision is, is that..." or " The thing we all have to understand is, is that...". This drives me nuts. Now, I hear the usage everywhere, particularly in the spoken media. What is happening here? This can't be correct

Guest
2
2012/05/31 - 12:54am

It sounds like a lazy way to sound pompous.
There are more sympathetic interpretations for it though in a previous discussion on the exact same topic that sorry I couldn't retrieve.

Guest
3
2012/05/31 - 9:23am

Here's a link to the previous thread:

http://tinyurl.com/7x3t9u8

Robert
553 Posts
(Offline)
4
2012/05/31 - 12:54pm

MGP:

There's another one-

I can't copy the link to it here, so I am replying to bring it on like a separate topic.

Guest
5
2012/05/31 - 4:43pm

I first started hearing this in the late '80s or so, I'd guess.   I assumed at the time—and it still sounds to me like a reasonable theory—that it started as a pause in spoken thought.   "The thing is...<pause for thought>...is that I didn't want to seem..." and so on.   But now I hear people, and reasonably polished speakers too, saying "the thing is is that I didn't want to seem..." without hardly a comma before the redundant word.

I don't believe pomposity is intended, though.   I don't think that people who do it are aware of it.

Guest
6
2012/05/31 - 4:56pm

By the way, with regard to the "pompous" theory, I'm tangentially reminded of something C S Lewis wrote in his book Surprised by Joy.   When he was a child, growing up in an Irish household, his father mentioned "stirrabout" and Lewis didn't understand the word.   The word was a low Irish word for a hot breakfast cereal of some kind, so his father assumed the boy was affecting to be high by pretending not to know the low, and chastised him for it.

In fact, Lewis said, it showed his father didn't understand him very well.   Had Lewis known the low word, he would have prided himself on using it and eschewing the fancier words.

I keep that in mind when tempted to read motives into others' choices.   Goethe is supposed to have said "No one would talk much in society if he knew how often he misunderstands others".   Surely people try to sound erudite—I do, myself, alas, far too often—but often not the people you assume.

Forum Timezone: UTC -7
Show Stats
Administrators:
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Moderators:
Grant Barrett
Top Posters:
Newest Members:
A Conversation with Dr Astein Osei
Forum Stats:
Groups: 1
Forums: 1
Topics: 3647
Posts: 18912

 

Member Stats:
Guest Posters: 618
Members: 1268
Moderators: 1
Admins: 2
Most Users Ever Online: 1147
Currently Online:
Guest(s) 91
Currently Browsing this Page:
1 Guest(s)

Recent posts