Martin KonvičkaFor some time now, I’ve been working on the so-called "because X" construction, e.g. "I’m late because traffic". Primarily in English, German, Dutch, and Czech, but I’m interested in equivalents in other languages as well. I thought that it might be useful to share my open #Zotero library so that everyone who’s interested can add a paper that anyone working on #BecauseX should not miss.
PS: This is the first time I’m trying to share a Zotero library, so I’m not sure whether it’ll work or whether I’m doing something completely wrong. For that reason, I’d appreciate any feedback!
Tatjana Scheffler@TeapotLinguist Very cool! I can see it and it's interesting that there are so many papers just on that construction. Thanks for sharing!
Sascha Wolfer@TeapotLinguist It works perfectly fine. I've just added an article (Abel & Glaznieks 2020) where this construction is analyzed in CMC corpora.
HighlandLawyer@TeapotLinguist Don't have any article to hand, but reminds me of the Esperanto "ĉar" (conjunction equivalent to "because") and "pro" (preposition equivalent to "because" or "by reason of").
So "I'm late because traffic" would be "mi malfruas pro trafiko" as opposed to "mi malfruas ĉar estis tiom da trafiko" (I'm late because there was so much traffic.)
So "I'm late because traffic" would be "mi malfruas pro trafiko" as opposed to "mi malfruas ĉar estis tiom da trafiko" (I'm late because there was so much traffic.)
@HighlandLawyer Thanks for the comment! Could "ĉar" in Esperanto be used also in a structure like "mi malfruas ĉar trafiko"? Or alternatively could "pro" be used in something like "mi malfruas pro estis tiom da trafiko"? What makes "because X" stand out is namely its flexibility - it can be followed by a full clause, but also by a verbless phrase.
@TeapotLinguist In terms of taught grammar it seems always to be "pro" noun & "ĉar" phrase. Though there's also "pro tio ke" phrase (literal translation "by reason of that thing that")
However it might be worth someone studying usage "in the wild" because speakers often import native language idioms, especially in casual speech eg social media; also easy switching between verb & noun forms might have an effect with its flexibility: "ĉar trafikas" (verb) instead of "ĉar trafiko" (noun)
However it might be worth someone studying usage "in the wild" because speakers often import native language idioms, especially in casual speech eg social media; also easy switching between verb & noun forms might have an effect with its flexibility: "ĉar trafikas" (verb) instead of "ĉar trafiko" (noun)