English Has a New Preposition, Because Internet

Post by hnriot » Wed, Nov 20, 2013, 6:44 AM UTC

Alex_Jiang wrote: post #63

lmkg wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think "idiom" is an apt description. It's a compact phrase that conveys at least two layers of meaning. Most importantly, one of those meanings cannot simply be parsed from the direct syntax & vocabulary that make up the phrase, but relies on the cultural familiarity with the phrase and its common usage. I do wonder, though, how long this secondary meaning will last. Right now the dismissive connotation comes about…

I'm not sure that understanding this is that predicated on cultural familiarity. I'd argue the majority of its meaning comes from the fact that it "breaks the rules in order to be overly brief." The syntax being intentionally wrong, bad, and clumsy coincides with the fact that it's often used to describe absurd things and situations. Clumsy syntax = slightly belligerent rhetoric? I could be wrong, my main idea of a i…

Post by masklinn » Wed, Nov 20, 2013, 7:26 AM UTC

eru wrote: post #110

jrockway wrote: post #104

I'm not yet convinced that this is something one can use and not get laughed at for quite yet. It's fine for informal communications because your readers are probably not too literate, but I fear that this might still confuse an older generation used to more formal grammatical constructions. All of the examples are just social media wanking, as far as I can tell, so probably not indicative of any actual shift in how…

> [..] an older generation used to more formal grammatical constructions. They didn't start out as formal constructions, just pick up any lament about the decline of language from, say, the 19th century.

Post by daveid » Wed, Nov 20, 2013, 7:45 AM UTC

10098 wrote: post #31

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…

amazingly, something similar can be observed in Russian language as well. In casual speech, one can explain the reason for something using потому что (because) followed by a noun (e.g. "потому что политика! - "because politics!"), followed by end of sentence. Which I'm not entirely sure is grammatically correct, however it has an effect similar to what you mentioned.

Post by kzrdude » Wed, Nov 20, 2013, 8:37 AM UTC

fallingOff wrote: post #101

I added bacon to my milkshake because delicious/awesome. In the sentence above, "because" is followed by an adjective phrase. Prepositions are never followed by adjective phrases, so "prepositional because" is a misnomer for this new construction and does not fully describe its range of uses. I have no suggestions for a better name though... I've never heard this construction in speech, but maybe I don't hang out wit…

Post by pferde » Wed, Nov 20, 2013, 8:47 AM UTC

erbo wrote: post #28

There's other ways of expanding the "because-noun" construction. I've occasionally posted a link to Facebook with a comment like "This is incredibly awesome and you should read this, because SPACE." In this case, the construct expands to something like "...because it has to do with space, which I consider to be inherently awesome." "Because-noun," it would appear, can be construed multiple ways, and a lot of the mean…