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From: greg@hwcs.UUCP (Greg Michaelson)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: non-causal use of 'because'
Message-ID: <568@hwcs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 13-Jun-85 01:47:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: hwcs.568
Posted: Thu Jun 13 01:47:10 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Jun-85 01:20:34 EDT
Organization: Computer Sci., Heriot-Watt U., Scotland
Lines: 13


One might expect 'because' to be followed by a reason, as in:

 He ate the cake because he was hungry.

However, its often used to imply a preceding 'I know that', as in:

 He ate the cake because my aunt told me =>
 I know he ate the cake because my aunt told me

In such cases, the implied causality on an explicit interpretation is bogus.

Any ideas as to how this use originated?