标题: because是不是比due to好吖？ [打印本页] 作者: william760 时间: 2010-12-3 22:59 标题: because是不是比due to好吖？ 在OG上看到好几道题，都是选because，不选due to的~虽然这些用due to的句子都有其它硬伤，但解释中都指出“due to在本句中表达不清晰”之类的~ 还有，if是不是要比when好吖？也是在OG上经常遇到~作者: windmaple 时间: 2010-12-15 13:40
found this on the web. 基本上due to不可能放在句首，因为它要修饰名词, usually 做表语，as in 'X is due to Y'
The word pairs “because of” and “due to” are not interchangeable. The reason they are not is that they “grew up” differently in the language. “Because of” grew up as an adverb; “due to” grew up as an adjective. Remember that adjectives modify only nouns or pronouns, whereas adverbs usually modify verbs. (The fact that adverbs occasionally modify other adverbs or even adjectives and entire phrases is not relevant to this particular discussion.) To be more precise, with their attendant words, “due to” and “because of” operate as adjectival and adverbial prepositional phrases. To understand how the functions of “due to” and “because of” vary, look at these sentences.
1. His defeat was due to the lottery issue.
2. He was defeated because of the lottery issue.
In sentence #1, his is a possessive pronoun that modifies the noun defeat. The verb “was” is a linking verb. So, to create a sentence, we need a subject complement after the verb “was.” The adjectival prepositional phrase “due to the lottery issue” is that complement, linked to the subject by “was.” Thus, it modifies the noun defeat. But in sentence #2, the pronoun "he" has become the sentence's subject. The verb is now “was defeated.” As reconstructed, “He was defeated” could in fact be a complete sentence. And “due to” has nothing to modify. It's an adjective, remember? It can't very well modify the pronoun “he,” can it? Neither can it refer to “was defeated” because adjectives don't modify verbs. Sentence 2, therefore, should read: “He was defeated because of the lottery issue.” Now the “why” of the verb “was defeated” is explained, properly, by an adverbial prepositional phrase, “because of.” In informal speech, we probably can get by with such improper usage as “His defeat was because of the lottery issue,” and “He was defeated due to the lottery issue.” But we shouldn't accept that kind of sloppiness in writing. We don't want to look stupid among those in the audience who know better. If we show them we don't care about the language, how can we expect them to believe us when we tell them that we care about the facts?