Thanks for posting the various references on 'awkward' writing. I've 
been interested in the syntactic properties of awkward writing for a 
long time -- I'm glad someone else has done the research already!!

As to the context of the particular construction in question, in my 
student writing, it does not occur in the sort of contrastive context 
that Craig describes. If it did, I wouldn't notice it, because it would 
work! There is a delicate balance between making writing so dense that 
it is hard to read, and so spread out that it sounds simplistic.

Along with Bob and Jim, I think there is a strong mental processing 
factor here. Putting one's thoughts down on paper is somewhat 
laborious, and the mind can generally hold only a small amount of 
information at a time in the short-term memory. I think this is what 
leads to the less-dense character of speech syntax. Also, I believe the 
rhetorical factor of using the topic-structure to set the scene for the 
new information in the rest of the sentence plays a big role. The 
writer does this in his/her own thoughts, as well as wanting to orient 
the reader to the context within which to situate the new information. 
Combine these two factors, and you get the orientation material put 
into its own construction with a repetitious reference in subject 
position.

As to terminology, it's nice to have terms like subject, topic, etc. 
But I think this particular structure can be handled with little to  no 
terminology.

My own writing is not so hot today. I'm off to England for a conference 
on Friday, and frantically trying to finish everything. Writing these 
notes is a major symptom of procrastination and stress avoidance ...

Dr. Johanna Rubba, Associate Professor, Linguistics
Linguistics Minor Advisor
English Department
California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Tel.: 805.756.2184
Dept. Ofc. Tel.: 805.756.2596
Dept. Fax: 805.756.6374
URL: http://www.cla.calpoly.edu/~jrubba

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