Limbaugh Style

[Robert Lawless]

With Rush Limbaugh in the national news because of his recent speech to 
the CPAC, I’ve been listening to his radio broadcasts for the past few 
days, not for the content but for the style. One of the main 
characteristics of his speech is that he leaves many sentences 
unfinished rushing into a new sentence. The frequency of incompletions 
seems to increase as his hysteria increases. I’m wondering whether this 
is a practiced, conscious speech affectation or whether he can’t help 
himself. Is there an expected or maybe unintended impact on the 
listener? Does the behavior heighten the urgency of the message? Does it 
irritate the listener? Is there a particular linguistic or literary 
label for this speech pattern? Robert.