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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
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.
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.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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