Bill,

 

I think there’s a difference between an parenthetical repetition and placement of an adverb.  Parentheticals, like this one set off with dashes, can break up constituents in ways that movable adverbs can’t, and can only occur after the word it repeats.  There is also an argument that “because of” is a compound preposition because we can put “—an only because of—“ after it.  Something like “We spent three hours at—and only three hours at—the concert” doesn’t work as well.  A movable adverb like “simply” can occur in a number of positions, with little change in meaning if any:

 

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

 

I can get “simply” in any of the positions I marked, although after “lack” I would require comma intonation.  I go with the complex preposition analysis also because “due to” is not the semantic sum of “due” + “to.”

 

Herb

 

 

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

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