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English Has a New Preposition, Because Internet

theatlantic.com

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Re: English Has a New Preposition, Because Internet

#51

Post by colinwd »

humanrebar wrote: post #42
colinwd wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting that "mental laziness" is the association you have with this construction. It certainly signals a sort of casual tone, but it's easy to fall into the trap of "different than the way I speak" -> "wrong". Certainly not helped by the fact that young people are the ones who generate and adopt language changes at a vastly higher rate. "Laziness" in language change generally follows the principle of least effor…

I have nothing against brevity. And I don't think it's lazy because I don't speak that way. To clarify my thoughts, I think it's one thing to use a prepositional because when referring to oneself. However, it's another thing to criticize someone else with a five syllable simplification. It's impossible to do justice to someone else's thoughts and feelings that way. That lack of understanding and empathy is what I fin…

I think we are in agreement then. I certainly wouldn't use a construction like this in a serious critique. But then there are thousands of other things I wouldn't write or say in a serious context either.

Re: English Has a New Preposition, Because Internet

#52

Post by dnautics »

benched wrote: post #48
dnautics wrote: post #25

My suspicion is that this evolved from the phrase "because f-ck you, that's why", which is pretty old (~5-10 years). Edit: Oldest usage, as found by google: http://www.dkvine.com/games/dkl3/ (2001), line 807 in the source; this is probably not the first usage in all of english.

"Cause fuck him, that's why" is from Good Will Hunting. 1997.

great catch, although I wouldn't be surprised if the phrase preceded that, even.

Re: English Has a New Preposition, Because Internet

#53

Post by cbhl »

humanrebar wrote: post #24
alex_c wrote: post #10

What's fascinating to me is that, unlike so many other language "changes", this isn't caused by laziness or carelessness. This seems to be a rare case where removing words adds information, rather than removing it: "The talks failed because of politics" means roughly what it says, while "The talks failed because politics" means roughly "The talks failed because of politics, which is the kind of thing that always happ…

> this isn't caused by laziness or carelessness Some of this might be caused by increased use of smartphones for posting on the Facebook, tweeting, and texting. I'm not sure laziness is the right word, but conservation of characters is certainly a goal. As far as laziness, I'll disagree with you. Hardly ever is a "because X" clause well thought out or witty. I think it's safe to assume there is some serious mental la…

> Some of this might be caused by increased use of smartphones

I actually find it more effort to type full English sentences with a keyboard and mouse; my Android smartphone has voice dictation and swipe gesture typing, and I find that iOS' autocorrect appears to trigger most when you type something that isn't a "standard" sentence.

Re: English Has a New Preposition, Because Internet

#54

Post by pasquinelli »

wubbfindel wrote: post #2

Excellent article, worth the read. Not many comments here, because short attention spans!

i read the prepositional because with a pause, like, because... evolution. as if the ellipsis are placeholders for an actual thought that falls under the umbrella of evolution. so the plural on spans just makes it seem like a typo. maybe, "because ADD" would work better.

Re: English Has a New Preposition, Because Internet

#55

Post by dgreensp »

alex_c wrote: post #10

What's fascinating to me is that, unlike so many other language "changes", this isn't caused by laziness or carelessness. This seems to be a rare case where removing words adds information, rather than removing it: "The talks failed because of politics" means roughly what it says, while "The talks failed because politics" means roughly "The talks failed because of politics, which is the kind of thing that always happ…

I'd call it a grammatical construction. Your brain already knows how to "typecast" a noun to a reason ("Why didn't the bill pass?" "I don't know. Politics."), it's just not usually grammatically "licensed" in this case. If you've been infected by the "because [noun]" meme, however, you have a construction in your vocabulary (we could say in your idiolect) that can be invoked to explain any instances of "because [noun]" you come across, with all the associated connotations you learned along with it.

It's similar to "Suddenly, bananas!" or "I accidentally the whole thing." I wish I could remember all the strange grammar I heard at MIT. Communities like the hacker community and 4chan are fertile ground for new grammatical constructions because people pick up and repeat the ones they hear while trying to preserve their meaning and connotations.

I still occasionally burst out laughing when I hear a funny turn of phrase at Meteor (which has a lot of MIT people).

Funny language is funny.

Re: English Has a New Preposition, Because Internet

#56

Post by Semaphor »

code_duck wrote: post #9
axus wrote: post #7

I thought this usage arose from dropping the word "of" after "because". "Because of" wasn't mentioned anywhere in the article.

It is, in the beginning: > It can be followed either by a finite clause (I'm reading this because [I saw it on the web]) or by a prepositional phrase (I'm reading this because [of the web]). Seems to me that you are correct, this 'new usage' is merely the latter usage without 'of'.

The difference is that it changes the meaning.

Re: English Has a New Preposition, Because Internet

#57

Post by jamesbritt »

chc wrote: post #46

It's not really a new preposition, per se. It's a type of joke. Every occurrence cited here is using it in a jokey fashion. It seems to me you may as well say potatoes are a common topic of conversation on the Internet because of Latvian jokes.

Every occurrence cited here is using it in a jokey fashion.

That's how it feels to me, too. It works because people are in on the deliberate "misuse" of language. Sort of like when people say (or said) the single-word sentence "Sadness."

Should it become common parlance then that cool "in-joke" feel goes away, and while it would still have some meaning it wouldn't be the same meaning it has right now.

It might simply become another way to say "because of."

Or, articles like this one might lead people to make more of it than it was every intended, thereby becoming correct by virtue of asserting a claim that people then follow as if it already true.

Re: English Has a New Preposition, Because Internet

#58

Post by russell »

alex_c wrote: post #10

What's fascinating to me is that, unlike so many other language "changes", this isn't caused by laziness or carelessness. This seems to be a rare case where removing words adds information, rather than removing it: "The talks failed because of politics" means roughly what it says, while "The talks failed because politics" means roughly "The talks failed because of politics, which is the kind of thing that always happ…

My favorite: Putting Root Beer in a square cup makes it regular beer because math.

It took me a few seconds to get my head around that one.

Re: English Has a New Preposition, Because Internet

#59

Post by rangibaby »

humanrebar wrote: post #49
jrochkind1 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In fact, I'm having a hard time coming up with an example of a "because X" clause that has complimentary implications. I added bacon to my milkshake because delicious. I don't normally like superhero movies, but I went to see the Avengers, because Joss Whedon.

This is close to being complimentary, but it comes across as more of a compliment to Joss Whedon than the subject. At best, it's a neutral expression of fandom. At worst, it's an admission of fanboy (or fangirl) proclivities. Some sort of context is needed to clarify which one.

X was awesome because uhhh stuff

Re: English Has a New Preposition, Because Internet

#60

Post by rangibaby »

chc wrote: post #46

It's not really a new preposition, per se. It's a type of joke. Every occurrence cited here is using it in a jokey fashion. It seems to me you may as well say potatoes are a common topic of conversation on the Internet because of Latvian jokes.

This is how the word "OK" started out; it was a joke abbreviation of "all correct": Oll Korrect. You never know when a joke is going to take over the world...

[0] http://www.amazon.com/OK-Improbable-Story-Americas-Greatest/...

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