"Linguists are
recognizing the delightful evolution of the word "because."
Let's
start with the dull stuff, because pragmatism.
The
word "because," in standard English usage, is a subordinating
conjunction, which means that it
connects two parts of a sentence in which one (the subordinate) explains the
other. In that capacity, "because" has two distinct forms. 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]). These two forms are, traditionally, the only
ones to which "because" lends itself.
I
mention all that ... because language. Because evolution. Because there is
another way to use “because”. Linguists are calling it the
"prepositional-because." Or the "because-noun."
You
probably know it better, however, as explanation by way of Internet—explanation
that maximizes efficiency and irony in equal measure. I'm late because
YouTube. You're reading this because procrastination. As the language
writer Stan Carey delightfully sums it up: " 'Because'
has become a preposition, because grammar."
Indeed.
So we get uses like this, from Wonkette:
Well here is a nice
young man, Fred E. Ray Smith, running for Oklahoma state Senate, from jail,
where he was taken for warrants and drunk driving and driving without a license
or registration, and also he owes so much child support and his ex has a
protective order out against him. We assume he is going to win, because
“R-Oklahoma.”
And like
this, from the Daily Kos:
If due north was
good enough for that chicken's parents and grandparents and
great-great-great-great-grandparents, it's good enough for that chicken too,
damn it. But Iowa still wants to sell eggs to California, because money.
And like
this, from Lindy West and Jezebel:
Did you hear the big
news? Men are going extinct. Really really slowly, and probably only in theory,
but extinct nonetheless! [...]
Lame! RIP, dudes! Now, I'm sure kneejerk anti-feminist dickwads
think that the eradication of men is exactly what we women
mean by "plz can we have equal rights now thx." Because logic.
It's
a usage, in other words, that is exceptionally bloggy and aggressively casual
and implicitly ironic. And also highly adaptable. Carey has unearthed instances
of the "because-noun" construction with the noun in question being,
among other terms, "science, math, people, art, reasons, comedy, bacon, ineptitude, fun,patriarchy, politics, school, intersectionality,
and winner." (Intersectionality! Because THEORY. Bacon!
Because BACON.)
But the
formulation isn't simply limited to nouns. Carey again:
The construction is
more versatile than “because+noun” suggests. Prepositional because can
be yoked to verbs (Can’t talk now because cooking), adjectives (making
up examples because lazy), interjections (Because yay!), and
maybe adverbs too, though in strings like Because honestly., the
adverb is functioning more as an exclamation. The resulting phrases are all
similarly succinct and expressive.
Which
is to say, the "because-noun" form is limited only to the
confines of your own imagination. It can be anything you want it to be. So
we get comments like these, with people using "because" not just to
explain, but also to criticize, and sensationalize, and ironize.
And the this is what Sean Carrol Said:
So how did people start using "because" like this? Unclear. There are certainly connections to memes, as in 2001's elegantly straightforward "Because fuck you," and 2011's "because race car." The construction could also be, as the linguist Neal Whitman speculates, a shortened version of "because, hey, [noun]"—as in, NSF cancels new political science grants, because, hey, politics—with people dropping the "hey" while keeping the rest of the construction intact. (In this case, hey functions "like an adaptor, letting you shift from the ordinary speech register to this casual and condensed register.") There could also be echoes, Carey points out, of parent-child exchanges (kid: Why? Parent: Because). A comment on the blog Language Log also mentions the intriguing, though likely unrelated, fact that in Spanish, "because" (porque) and "why" (¿por qué?) are close to synonymous.
But it also conveys a certain universality. When I say, for example, "The talks broke down because politics," I'm not just describing a circumstance. I'm also describing a category. I'm making grand and yet ironized claims, announcing a situation and commenting on that situation at the same time. I'm offering an explanation and rolling my eyes—and I'm able to do it with one little word. Because variety. Because Internet. Because language.
