[lit-ideas] Re: Because Implicature
- From: Mike Geary <gearyservice@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 8 Jan 2014 14:53:35 -0600
"Because" used as a preposition.
Old hat where I come from. Why do I say that? Because. Because why?
Because because. But because because why? Because I do, damnit! Now shut
the fuck up and get on about you business. Language is whatever the hell
gets the thought across. A fart as a physiological phenomenon can be used
as a word if it successfully conveys one's meaning within a communication
context -- whatever that means. That's the end all and be all of
language. So sayeth I and sayeth rightly so and justly because.
On Sat, Jan 4, 2014 at 9:18 AM, <Jlsperanza@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> From today's World Wide Words:
>
> "Words of 2013."
>
> "The American Dialect Society continued its tradition of voting for its
> Word of the Year at its annual conference, held this year in Minneapolis."
>
> "The winner was a curious choice:
>
> "because X," where
>
> "X" is a noun or noun phrase *without* the intermediate of that would be
> expected in _standard_ English."
>
> Examples:
>
> “because homework”, “because internet”.
>
> Speranza's examples:
>
> "Because Implicature"
> "Because Grice".
>
> "In such phrases, most often encountered online, "because" has changed" --
> as Grice would say -- "from a conjunction to a preposition"
>
> thus complicating what Grice calls its logical form.
>
> "It may suggest [or implicate -- Speranza] the logic behind the reasoning
> is too poor to survive exposure or the reason is so obvious the speaker [or
> utterer, as Grice prefers -- Speranza] doesn’t need to elaborate."
>
> ""The version found most often is
>
> "because reasons,"
>
> a hand-waving way of saying that the speaker [or utterer -- Speranza]
> doesn
> ’t want or need to explain."
>
> It may be that the Griceian conversational maxim is alleged to be 'under
> control': "do not say what you lack adequate reasons for".
>
> ""Because X "had also been chosen as "Most Useful Word of the Year" [where
> the implicature is not Witters's -- 'meaning is use', meaning should be
> useful -- Speranza], beating "struggle bus", a difficult situation, as in
>
> "I’m riding the struggle bus"."
>
> But cf. Speranza's
>
> "Because Struggle Bus".
>
> "It is likely that journalists will have a struggle bus telling their
> readers why because X won (try “because language”, guys)."
>
> Cheers
>
> Speranza
>
> World Wide Words is copyright © Michael Quinion 2014.
> http://www.worldwidewords.org.
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