Why quantum mechanics?

[Benjamin Barrett]

I think that's right. In addition to the different underlying grammatical form, this "why Tuesday?" surely must differ as it is the question version of the WOTY "because," not the garden variety "why have you chosen Tuesday?"

A: Do you think Christie's going to run for president?
B: No.
A: Why not?
B: Because(WOTY) Bridgegate.
A: Why(WOTY) Bridgegate?
B: Because he now has strange credibility.

Benjamin Barrett
Formerly of Seattle, WA

Learn Ainu! https://sites.google.com/site/aynuitak1/videos

On Jan 10, 2014, at 8:35 PM, Alice Faber <faber at HASKINS.YALE.EDU> wrote:

> "Because duck", surely?
>
> On 1/10/14 8:39 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>> So we've finally realized that the appropriate answer to the Groucho's (or was it Chico's?) question "Why a duck?" is, of course, "Because a duck."
>>
>> LH
>>
>> On Jan 10, 2014, at 8:21 PM, George Thompson wrote:
>>
>>> 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

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