The students in one of my (college) grammar classes are starting to analyze text from “naturally-occurring” sources (as opposed to textbook examples) and bringing in sentences that stump them so we can discuss them in class (and so I can repeatedly notice that English is weird, which anyone who teaches grammar needs to be reminded of as often as possible).  A recent example involved a construction like the following (something like this may have come up on the list before, but if so, it was long enough ago that it’s not in my saved folder; apologies if it is indeed repetition):

 

                These problems were due simply to a lack of water in the surrounding area.

 

I could think of two analyses off the bat:

 

(1)          “due” is an adjective being modified by an infinitive phrase (this is how I usually deal with “able to…” etc.

 

(2)          “due to” is a compound preposition, analogous to “because of.”

 

I used the fact that “simply” is wedged between “due” and “to” to argue for version #1, since there’s no parallel example that would involve “because simply of.”

 

But… I later realized that examples like the following don’t sound that strange:

 

                We canceled the game because – and only because – of the weather.

 

Does that example strike y’all (you’ns, you guys, youse) as possible, or have I done the usual linguist trick of cogitating myself into a corner? I also have to figure out what to do with “command infinitives” like “You are to do the homework”…

 

Thanks – Bill Spruiell