Why quantum mechanics?

[George Thompson]

I find "why Tuesday?" or "why pork chops?", &c. a perfectly natural,
elliptical way of asking "why have you chosen Tuesday (instead of the day
I'd prefer) or "why are you serving pork chops (when you know that they get
stuck between my teeth)"

GAT


On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 11:10 AM, Dan Goncharoff <thegonch at gmail.com> wrote:

> Isn't a question like "Why turbulence?" natural in speech and a possible
> source for the "Because X" pattern?
>
> DanG
>
>
> On Fri, Jan 10, 2014 at 7:48 AM, Dave Wilton <dave at wilton.net> wrote:
>
> > ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> > -----------------------
> > Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> > Poster:       Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET>
> > Subject:      Why quantum mechanics?
> >
> >
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Today's xkcd comic contains a variant of the WOTY use of "because," a use
> > of
> > "why," as in "Why quantum mechanics?" and "Why turbulence?"
> >
> > http://xkcd.com/1315/
> >
> > (I haven't looked into whether Horace Lamb actually said anything of this
> > nature.)
> >
> > --Dave Wilton
> >    Doctoral Candidate, Department of English
> >    University of Toronto
> >    dave.wilton at utoronto.ca / dave at wilton.net
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern
Univ. Pr., 1998, but nothing much since then.

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