Literary notes about attributable (AI summary)
The word “attributable” is employed to indicate that a particular result, error, or phenomenon can be traced back to a specific cause or source. Its usage spans a wide range of contexts, from detailing the origins of a historical decision [1] or the influence of individual personality traits on events [2] to attributing natural or mechanical outcomes to precise factors [3, 4, 5]. In philosophical and analytical texts, the term conveys the idea that complex effects are directly connected to underlying causes—whether these are human passions and actions [6, 7, 8], institutional policies [9, 10, 11], or natural forces operating in the environment [12, 13]. This precise linguistic tool allows authors to present cause-and-effect relationships succinctly and helps clarify the reasoning behind observed phenomena [14, 15, 16].
- I am inclined to think that the hostile measures taken by the Southern provinces upon a recent occasion are attributable to no other cause.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville - If you were not to stand by your "kin" as long as there was a shred of honor attributable to them, pray what were you to stand by?
— from The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot - Desquamation is attributable to the exaggerated proliferation of the epidermis and the loosening of its attachment by the inflammation.
— from A System of Practical Medicine. By American Authors. Vol. 1 Pathology and General Diseases - The rapid walk had brought colour to her cheek, and perhaps to the same cause was attributable her quickened breathing.
— from Denzil Quarrier by George Gissing - The advance in October and November was 46 feet; the gain over the previous rate of progress is attributable to the practice of simultaneous blasting.
— from Report of the Hoosac Tunnel and Troy and Greenfield Railroad, by the Joint Standing Committee of 1866. by Tappan Wentworth - The mind is, only while the body endures, subject to those emotions which are attributable to passions.
— from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza - Thus far I have treated of the emotions attributable to man, in so far as he is passive.
— from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza - Those things, which beget harmony, are such as are attributable to justice, equity, and honourable living.
— from Ethics by Benedictus de Spinoza - The vast number of very ordinary men who occupy public stations is quite as attributable to these causes as to the bad choice of the democracy.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville - If the executive government is feebler in America than in France, the cause is more attributable to the circumstances than to the laws of the country.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 1 by Alexis de Tocqueville - Yet what takes place in the United States is much less attributable to the institutions of the country than to the country itself.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville - These variations in the phonetic representation of the songs are attributable mostly to the birds.
— from Comparative Breeding Behavior of Ammospiza caudacuta and A. maritima by Glen Everett Woolfenden - I have spoken before of the noise produced by the weed, a thunderous crackling and snapping attributable to its extraordinary rate of growth.
— from Greener Than You Think by Ward Moore - I believe that it is attributable to Eratosthenes himself, and that that geographer did nothing more than convert the days’ marches into stadia.
— from The Geography of Strabo, Volume 3 (of 3) by Strabo - Even his lordship's serious misunderstanding with Mr. Dawson was entirely attributable to his anxiety on Miss Halcombe's account.
— from The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins - This was attributable not only to particular and fortuitous circumstances, but to general and lasting causes.
— from Democracy in America — Volume 2 by Alexis de Tocqueville
