Double subjects and verbal demonstrations

This paper explores the role of a contemporary instance of anacolutha—what I refer to as a double-subject sentence (DSS)—in structuring a discourse. I argue that the initial subject of the DSS is semantically detached from the primary sentence and that it is a rhetorical tool used to project a new direction of discourse. To illustrate this detachment, I show how the communicative function of the initial subject is essentially that of a demonstration, a pointing gesture, that accompanies a demonstrative. I show ultimately that the DSS provides a useful illustration of the way speakers maintain knowledge of contextual conditions and how they use that knowledge to organize propositions efficiently and effectively in a discourse.