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From: dinitz@uicsl.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: redundancy in language and mis-pronu - (nf)
Message-ID: <4210@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 29-Nov-83 22:44:47 EST
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.4210
Posted: Tue Nov 29 22:44:47 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 1-Dec-83 22:34:52 EST
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#R:fortune:-183400:uicsl:8600029:000:911
uicsl!dinitz    Nov 29 10:57:00 1983

It could be that maybe what the long wind-up does is it gives people time to
think of what the real content of their response will be without allowing
the ultimate embarrassment -- silence -- while they are deciding what to say.

Do think about this seriously.  To start a sentence by repeating part of the
sentence framework just processed mutatis mutandis should be nearly
effortless.  In the meantime our wonderfully parallel brains can attend to
the more complex task of composing a response.  To convince yourself there
is a prima facie case, think of how often people start a response in the way
you find objectionable, but then seem to drop off that line of attack and
begin a new sentence.  The new sentence follows closely upon the heels of
the old fragment, without pause, making for what sounds like one very
awkward sentence.

Does anyone know of any solid research to test this kind of hypothesis?