  We study a Lagrangian formalism that avoids double counting in effective
field theories where distinct fields are used to describe different infrared
momentum regions for the same particle. The formalism leads to extra
subtractions in certain diagrams and to a new way of thinking about
factorization of modes in quantum field theory. In non-relativistic field
theories, the subtractions remove unphysical pinch singularities in box type
diagrams, and give a derivation of the known pull-up mechanism between soft and
ultrasoft fields which is required by the renormalization group evolution. In a
field theory for energetic particles, the soft-collinear effective theory
(SCET), the subtractions allow the theory to be defined with different infrared
and ultraviolet regulators, remove double counting between soft, ultrasoft, and
collinear modes, and give results which reproduce the infrared divergences of
the full theory. Our analysis shows that convolution divergences in
factorization formul\ae occur due to an overlap of momentum regions. We propose
a method that avoids this double counting, which helps to resolve a long
standing puzzle with singularities in collinear factorization in QCD. The
analysis gives evidence for a factorization in rapidity space in exclusive
decays.
