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Apologies if this seems like an inappropriate fork, but the author uses a convention in the introductory paragraph that I find jarring, at best, and I wonder if anyone knows what it's called? It's this (emphasis added):

"...You're not wrong (though not entirely right, because descriptivist linguistics): An intuitive code governs..."

Is there a name for this? It feels, to me, like an "abbrev" or something, where the speaker wants to either convey cleverness or assume common understanding with the audience. Maybe it could be called a "redditism" - that's where I think I normally see the form. Does it have a name? Just curious...



This is a recent usage, or even meme -- "because science," etc. She's no doubt using "because" ironically. See:

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/11/englis...


Many thanks - that's exactly the discussion I was looking for :)



I would take a guess that it is type of Ellipsis[1] -- more specifically, Answer ellipsis[2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellipsis_%28linguistics%29

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Answer_ellipsis

EDIT: Keep in mind, I was writing this response before links to the Atlantic were posted (which I haven't read yet).


The "because" is a link to an article mentioning the phenomenon.




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