Assignment 6.1
Because-noun is not bad, because language evolution.
The internet introduces language evolution at a faster pace than ever. New words are added, and
recognised by official linguistic institutes. The prime example of this is the word ‘selfie’ which has been
declared the Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year 2013. Other than new words, the internet also
introduces new grammatical constructions to the English Language. One of these constructions is the
because-noun construction. While it is considered an inattentive use of language, this construction is
most certainly not detrimental to the English language and may in the future even be recognised as a
proper usage of the word because.
Before any argument can be made for the because-noun construction, first it must be known what
exactly this construction is. The because-noun construction is a construction where the word ‘because’
is followed by a single other word or a small group of words, often a noun or a noun phrase. It is also
called a ‘prepositional because’. An example of this construction would be: “I didn’t finish my
homework because YouTube”. The phrase “because YouTube” implies that the speaker did not finish
their homework, because they were busy watching YouTube videos. It can be used for several purposes
such as to explain, to criticise, to sensationalise and to ironize.
According to Megan Garber at theatlantic.com, it is unclear when the because-noun actually came into
being. It has been seen as early as in 2001, and is still around today. Neal Whitman, Ph.D., from the
Literal Minded Blog, has come up with the theory that this construction may originate from what he
calls “because hey” sentences, such as “[i]f life gives you lemons, keep them, because, hey, free
lemons”. With time people started dropping the “hey” and simply put the noun or noun phrase after
because. He also notes that there have been similar sentences, with or without “hey”, although with
the word “but” instead of “because” as early as in the 1990s. It has also been noted that the becausenoun construction has been sighted using other words that “because” or “but”, for example “thus”, as
shown on Neal Whitman’s Twitter when he tweeted in October 2013: “[i]f you loved “because noun,”
get ready for “thus noun”! Don’t remember where or when I got the pic though.” Followed by a picture
showing the following excerpt from an unknown book: “[m]ultiple studies have shown that the average
man uses about half as many words per day as women, thus text messaging.”
The because-noun construction thanks much of its popularity to internet culture. Several internetspecific jokes, known as memes, have been made using this construction. Some examples of these
memes include “because race car” and “because reasons”. Examples of memes in general can be found
on 9gag.com or knowyourmeme.com. Something else that is interesting to note is that this
construction is not only used in English, but in different languages as well, such as Dutch. This indicates
that despite it originally being used in English, the construction has a big enough appeal to be
translated into the mother tongue of a non-native English speaker.
Several linguists believe this construction to be nothing but inattentive, and while it must be admitted
that to use a smaller number of words can be seen as such, the idea of omitting words for brevity is
not unknown. A similar case happened to the phrase “to graduate from”. As Mignon Fogarty from the
Grammar Girl blog explains, in the early 1900s the term was “to be graduated from”, as the school was
performing the act of graduating the students. Yet, language seeks to simplify itself, and as a result the
passive “was” was dropped over time. Thus the current term is “to graduate from”. However,
nowadays there is a growing group of people who have dropped the “from” and just use “to graduate”.
Back when the “was” was dropped, people cringed at the idea of this ‘wrong’ usage of the term, yet,
in time it was accepted as normal. And while most edited and academic text will still use the term “to
graduate from”, “to graduate” is starting to show up more often. While there is a difference between
dropping a word, while the meaning stays the same, and inventing a new grammatical construction by
dropping one or several words, the idea of simplifying language stays the same. As Neal Whitman
states: “In the future, ‘Because NOUN’ might fade away like other language fads, but on the other
hand, it might become at least as acceptable as, say, ‘graduated high school’”.
The because-noun may also be connected to so-called text speech. After all, text speech came into
being for two reasons. One was because providers charged text messages per symbol. The other was
the amount of clicks needed on a keypad. This led to words being abbreviated and other words being
elongated to reduce the amount of clicks. Leaving out nearly an entire sentence in favour of two words
is an efficient way of reducing both the symbols and the clicks needed. Text speech in itself has also
been discussed a multitude of times, yet John McWhorter, Associate Professor at Columbia University
and Contributing Editor at The New Republic, has mentioned something in his lecture at the TED2013
event that I feel worth mentioning here: “[w]hat texting is, despite the fact that it involves the brute
mechanics of something that we call writing, is fingered speech. That's what texting is. Now we can
write the way we talk.” By considering texting a form of speech rather than a form of writing, text
speech has also become a spoken language rather than a written one. This goes not only for texting,
but for instant messaging programmes such as MSN, social networks and their chatting opportunities
as well. This brings us back to the places on the internet where the because-noun construction is often
found, social media and the sites where memes originate from such as 9gag.
It has happened before that words or letters were dropped for the sake of brevity, one
example being text speech. And in most cases, people complained about this change in the language
they knew. The emergence of the because-noun construction is very similar to these cases. Since the
other cases turned out not to be detrimental to the English language, at most a bit inattentive, there
is no reason to assume that the because-noun construction will be detrimental. Perhaps we should
even embrace this construction and start using it more often, because brevity.
Works cited
9gag. (sd). Opgeroepen op November 6, 2014, van 9gag: www.9gag.com
Fogarty, M. (2011, May 26). Is “Graduated College” Wrong? (Macmillian Holdings LLC) Opgeroepen
op November 6, 2014, van Quick and Dirty Tips.:
http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/is-graduated-college-wrong
Garber, M. (2013, November 19). English Has a New Preposition, Because Internet. (The Atlantic
Monthly Group) Opgeroepen op November 6, 2014, van The Atlantic:
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/11/english-has-a-new-prepositionbecause-internet/281601/
Ha, T.-H. (2012, July 11). LOL is its own language: Q&A with John McWhorter. (Ted Conferences LLC)
Opgeroepen op November 6, 2014, van Ted: http://blog.ted.com/2012/07/11/lol-is-its-ownlanguage-qa-with-john-mcwhorter/
Hartogs, J. (2013, November 20). English grammar is changing…because Internet. (CBS Interactive
Inc) Opgeroepen op November 6, 2014, van CBSNews:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/english-grammar-is-changingbecause-internet/
James, C. (2013, November 21). Some Linguists Accept ‘Because’ as a Preposition. (Newsy.com)
Opgeroepen op November 6, 2014, van Newsy: http://www.newsy.com/videos/somelinguists-accept-039-because-039-as-a-preposition/
Know Your Meme. (sd). Opgeroepen op November 6, 2014, van Know Your Meme:
http://knowyourmeme.com/
McWhorter, J. (2013, April). Txtng is killing language. JK!!! (Ted Conferences LLC) Opgeroepen op
November 6, 2014, van Ted:
http://www.ted.com/talks/john_mcwhorter_txtng_is_killing_language_jk
Whitman, N. (2013, October 18). Because as a Preposition. (Macmillian Holdings LLC) Opgeroepen op
November 6, 1014, van Quick and Dirty Tips:
http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/because-as-a-preposition
Whitman, N. (2013, October 10). Literal Minded. Opgeroepen op November 6, 2014, van Twitter:
https://twitter.com/LiteralMinded/status/388428777371361280