"is-is"

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

On Mar 18, 2006, at 4:32 AM, Bill Le May wrote:

> I think a local (NE Iowa) 'leading is' usage is related.  Here we
> often
> hear:
>
> "Is what you want to do is..."

i'd be a bit more comfortable if we had some reports on the spot
(rather than from memory), especially with more context.

it would also be nice to have more citings, so that we could get some
sense of what the pattern is for these speakers.  it's impossible to
generalize from one example -- or even to know if there is a more
general pattern, or whether this is entirely a fixed formula.

still, a fascinating datum.

arnold

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