Date:  Sun, 28 Dec 1997 17:20:47 -0500
From:  Ron Butters <RonButters[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM>
Subject: WEIRD EXISTENTIAL < . . . is is . . . ?

Mary Bucholtz writes:

>Might this be related to the structure
>"The thing is is that..."? The
>reduplicated "is" isn't a speech error,
>and it's obligatory for those who use it.

Interesting suggestion, the psychosocial history of which might be something
like the following:

  S' = "The thing is + S"
> S' = "The thing is + is that + S"
> S' = Is that + S"

If so, that means my real estate guy may be in the vanguard of a syntactic
change?