Using "because of"

Question

I corrected the following statement in a student's paper today. She had written, "This camp was infamous because of the highest death rate."

I corrected it to say, "This camp was infamous because it had the highest death rate."

I am looking for an explanation for why the first sentence is incorrect. It seems that because of can be used with general statements. "This camp was infamous because of the (or its) high death rate." But to express that the camp had the highest death rate of all camps...I don't think because of can be used.

Can anyone explain why?

Thanks a bunch! Miss Michele @ MyVirtualEnglish

Deadrat · Accepted Answer

This is a very interesting question, not least because native speakers likely wouldn't stop to think about it.

The problem doesn't lie with the construction because of because of the fact that I can rephrase wordily: "This camp was infamous because of the fact that it had the highest death rate."

I will venture my opinion that the problem lies with the possessive and the superlative. The death rate must be associated with the camp, and your student's sentence doesn't do that. It's necessary to have something like "The camp was infamous because of its high death rate." But you want "highest" death rate, and the camp can't own that all by itself. The superlative wants a comparison, thus your suggestion: "The camp was infamous because it had the highest death rate [of all]."

Note that you can finesse the use of the superlative with an equivalent locution that works: "The camp was infamous because of its record death rate."

CalifJim · Answer

Michele Snider 4653This camp was infamous because of the highest death rate.

Compare:

Mary was popular because of the cheeriest disposition.

Hunh? It's more a lapse of logic than of grammar. It's saying that the cheeriest disposition (whatever that abstraction is supposed to be) causes Mary to be popular.

It's like saying that the calendar makes us older. If we could just get rid of those calendars, we'd be forever young.

Try:

This camp was infamous for its (high) death rate.

A second clause or sentence can bring in the statistics and make the claim of highest death rate.

CJ

Michele Snider 4653 · Answer

Funny! I had to laugh at your reference to being forever young, because I just wrote about our culture's obsession with staying forever young in my last blog post! You might like it.
http://www.myvirtualenglish.com/tough-topics-aging-death-forever-young/

Thanks again for your feedback, Michele

Michele Snider 4653 · Answer

Thank you for your thorough and helpful explanation.  I had shared the url to this thread with my student and she also found it insightful.  Michele

Using "because of"

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