Omitting 'it is' or 'they are' after 'because'?
I've noticed that various academic authors have a habit of leaving out the reference to a subject after the word 'because', presumably because it is deemed to be implied by the sentence (NB I just did the opposite by retaining it).
Some examples:
- "...all wrongs in law are prohibited wrongs and are thus wrong in the same way and for the same reason — because prohibited."
- "These are humanly meaningful because imputable to shared human norms of conduct."
In both cases, the phrase "they are" is omitted after "because". This is also sometimes done in the singular, e.g.
- "He pulls it off by effectively invoking a collective conception of femininity as insufficiently rational because excessively intuitive."
Personally I really dislike the omission because it feels to me as though it disrupts the rhythm of the sentence, curtailing it and leaving the referent 'hanging' (even if, with a moment's thought, it or they are in reality perfectly clear).
Does anyone have any insight into this phenomenon? Interestingly, all the examples I can think of are published by OUP, which made me wonder if it's in part connected with their editorial style (but that's just a speculation).
Solution 1:
It's not limited to omitting 'it is' or 'they are'. It can also replace 'because of'.
Here's Oxford's definition:
1.1. Informal Used to introduce a word or phrase that stands for a clause expressing an explanation or reason.
‘there's probably somebody out there who would argue the point because Internet’
‘making a bag of popcorn with hot sauce for lunch because hungry’
Solution 2:
While because + NP seems to be a rather recent innovation, because + AdjP is a construction with at least 200 years of history:
This would at least be honest, though I think it would be unwise, because unnecessary. (North American Review: April 1820: 386-418)
At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be infinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. (Walden, Henry David Thoreau, 1854)
PLEASONTON renders the collection of the taxes impossible, because unwise. (New York Times, Editorials 1871)
The experiment is a bold one, the outcome of which will be awaited with some eagerness by those who have always suspected that tons of older literature went unread because unseen. (The Nation: 12/24/1924, Vol. 119 Issue 3103, p693-695, 3p)
Stewart was the killer: the whole of the defense was that Stewart was not responsible because insane. (US Supreme Cour Opinion, STEWART v. UNITED STATES, 1961)
These are just a few examples out of the many which popped up in the Corpus of Historical American English, the last one being from the Supreme Court corpus which also includes many more examples of it.
This prompts one to wonder why dictionaries haven't bothered to include this use of because.
Lexico, for example, groups NPs and AdjPs together, simply stating that this use is informal and used to introduce a word or phrase that stands for a clause expressing an explanation or reason. The examples cited above seem anything but informal to me.