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"I am concerned/worried that I am losing weight."

Could anybody analyze the function and meaning of the word "that" here in the above sentence? It seems to me that it has the meaning of "because" or "as".

Edwin Ashworth
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sunyaer
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  • More like "about how" - I'm concerned about how I am losing weight. You might have better luck asking questions about basic English at the newly-formed ELL site. – J.R. Feb 13 '13 at 15:59
  • 'that' means something different from 'because'. The concern is specifically about weight with 'that'. With 'because', you are in general concerned, and the cause of the concern is weight. – Mitch Feb 13 '13 at 16:21

2 Answers2

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Technically speaking, the word that is a complementiser for the object complement clause "I am losing weight", but I'm not sure that will help OP understand what's going on here.

The first point to note is that it's completely optional in most contexts (including OP's example), and including it or not makes no difference to either the meaning or the level of "formality". It therefore follows that in this particular context, it doesn't really "mean" anything at all.

The second point to note is that OP's entire sentence is ambiguous - with or without that, and regardless of whether the verb is worried or concerned. The two possible meanings are:

1: I'm apprehensive because I know I'm losing weight.
2: I'm don't know if I'm losing weight, but I'm fretting about the possibility that I might be.

Choosing between those interpretations is subjective for the listener, even if we assume the speaker knows which he meant. My own feeling is that #2 is more common overall in such constructions, but you can always disambiguate by using because or in case instead of the optional that, to force meaning #1 or #2.

Community
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FumbleFingers
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That here is a subordinator introducing the clause I am losing weight. The idiom I am worried that makes the precise syntactic role of that clause a little muddy, but I think the simplest analysis that it marks I am losing weight as the agent of your concern:

[That I am losing weight] concerns me = I am concerned that I am losing weight.
[That I am losing weight] makes me happy = I am happy that I am losing weight.

Adjectives can have subjects just like verbs, though it may seem odd to think about it that way.

FumbleFingers
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StoneyB on hiatus
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  • I think it's worth pointing out that I am worried that X is very often (perhaps, usually) used in contexts where you're concerned that X may* be true, rather that concerned about the implications of the fact that X is true*. – FumbleFingers Feb 13 '13 at 19:24
  • @FumbleFingers a very good point. Let me see how I can work it in. – StoneyB on hiatus Feb 13 '13 at 19:37
  • You can easily drop the "that" in the example above and preserve the meaning so that the speaker is still concerned about loosing weight. So yeah, it's definitely about function. "I am concerned I am losing weight" sounds better than "I am worried I am losing weight" though. When it's optional I think it has more to do with rhythm and intonation. – Adam Feb 13 '13 at 19:45
  • Apologies if I'm stealing your thunder, but I figured it's possible OP (or others) might think "that" has some bearing on the ambiguity, so I posted a whole answer of my own to make the point that I don't think that's the case (that seems like a that too far, but the moving finger having writ, that'll just have to be that! :) – FumbleFingers Feb 13 '13 at 23:29
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    @FumbleFingers Glad you did (and glad I was called away) before I tried to make mine do more than it ought. Two very different answers, both legitimate, are better than one. – StoneyB on hiatus Feb 13 '13 at 23:45