[Ads-l] An early "is is."

[Arnold M. Zwicky]

> On Mar 26, 2017, at 3:31 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> 1964 Jere Peacock _To Drill and Die_  (N.Y.: Bantam) 257: "The thing of it
> is," Waldron said ... "is that this order was set up for you personally."

this is almost surely not an instance of Isis, but an interruption with partial restart.  not every occurrence of "is ... is" is an instance of Isis, as researchers on the phenomenon have emphasized for years.

extensive bibliography here:

https://arnoldzwicky.org/linguistics-notes/isis-is-is-double-is/

arnold
------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org