Zero-option

[Bob Fitzke]

Many years ago I had a family doctor who started most of his sentences,
"It's that....". I  subsequently learned he had a pronounced stutter and was
somehow better able to control it by starting sentences this way. Perhaps
the gentleman who starts his sentences with "Is..." may have some reason for
doing so other than it being simply idiosyncratic.

Bob
----- Original Message -----
From: "Timothy Wright" <timryte at YAHOO.CA>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Friday, June 20, 2003 6:35 AM
Subject: Re: Zero-option


> RON BUTTERS WROTE: Here is a native speaker of American English, an
educated, middle-aged man with no noticeable regional American accent and no
particular grammatical idiosyncracies except he starts about 20% of his
sentences with "is".
>
> I know a linguist (no doubt a native speaker of American English plus the
rest of the above, except he's past  middle age) who starts a big percentage
of his sentences with "Aye" (eye). Also, I think we all know lots of native
speakers of Canadian English who end their sentences with "Eh".
>
> I tend to dismiss both phenomena as mannerisms, but I am not a linguist.
>
> TIM WRIGHT
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