Date: Sat, 26 Jul 1997 11:37:21 -0400

From: Ron Butters RonButters[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]AOL.COM

Subject: "is is"



As I recall, this construction has been discussed here before. What my

memory also is is that several years ago in AMERICAN SPEECH someone (Jim

Hartman?) published something on how this pleonastic (?) IS may have evolved

from the long-grammatical "is is" of cleft sentences (e.g., in the opening

words of this sentence).



Can anyone help us out with a bibliography of this putatively new

construction?