Stay true to the dreams of thy youth

• Double-is: Why linguists think we sometimes double up on is in a setup, payoff style sentence.

  "The truth of the matter is is that ... The fact of the matter is is that ... What the American people understand is is that ... During the 2012 presidential debates, language mavens were all over President Obama’s extra is, his consistent repetition of a verb that seemed to serve no grammatical purpose. To be fair, this odd formulation has no political affiliation, since George W. Bush also used it: The other lesson is is that ... What did happen is is that ... But when a particularly prescriptivist friend called me out on my own double-is-ing, I wondered if it might serve a purpose. As it turns out, linguists have been making the case for double-is for decades."

  tags: grammar language obama speech syntax diction discourse

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