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I already understand and so ask NOT about the definition, below which I want to burrow. I heed the Etymological Fallacy. 1. What part of speech is for all that ?

for all that = in spite of that

2. How does the juxtaposition of for + all + that effect/imply/induce this meaning?

Footnote: I encountered the above while reading p 249, Zizek's Ontology ..., by Adrian Johnston.

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    IT doesn't, really; it's an idiom. Full form for all of that, referring to all the countervailing facts; it means even for all of that. – John Lawler Mar 02 '15 at 20:46
  • John has the right of it. As a naive speaker, I learned this as a fixed phrase through exposure. It never even occurred to me to examine the component words or their relations. So in addition to the "etymological fallacy", I would counsel you to start heeding the "idiomatic fallacy": idioms (by definition!) are under no obligation to derive their meaning from the composition of the meanings of their component words. Feel me? – Dan Bron Mar 02 '15 at 23:01
  • @DanBron Thank you. Yes; I shall heed both fallacies. However, is there any hope at rationalising or naturalising this? –  Mar 02 '15 at 23:05
  • Same way you (just!) naturalized "feel me?" without knowing it. From context and exposure (=immediate reasoning and extended exposure). – Dan Bron Mar 02 '15 at 23:07
  • Nevertheless, a one-word equivalent of for all that, is a contrastive sentence connector. One could say that for all that is a multi-word contrastive sentence connector. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 02 '15 at 23:19

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The OED does have an entry for for all that.

Of a preventive cause or obstacle. Thesaurus » a. In spite of, notwithstanding. Rare exc. in for all, for any, with a n.; also absol. for all that, etc.

OE Anglo-Saxon Chron. anno 1006 Ac for eallum þissum se here ferde swa he sylf wolde.

c1320 Seuyn Sag. (W.) 1135 For al that heuer he mighte do, His menesoun might nowt staunche tho.

c1386 Chaucer Doctor's Tale 129 This mayde shal be myn, for any man.

c1430 Syr Gener. 8058 Loue him she wold for ony drede.

1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry V f. liij, But for all that he could do, he lost almoste. ccc. of his fotemen.

1681 H. More Plain Expos. Daniel iii. 68 This Alexander the Great for all his greatness died.

1795 R. Burns Poems & Songs (1968) II. 762 The rank is but the guinea's stamp [1800 guinea stamp], The Man's the gowd for a' that.

1820 Keats Eve of St. Agnes in Lamia & Other Poems 83 The owl, for all his feathers, was a-cold.

1871 D. G. Rossetti Last Confession in Poems I was a moody comrade to her then, For all the love I bore her.

1873 F. Hall Mod. Eng. p. xv, For all that, I have contrived..to give some thought to my mother-tongue.

WS2
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The city was nestled in a bay and the strait was protected from entry. The enemy, approaching by ship, had to land on the peninsula. The men of the city went to set up defenses along the hill at the narrowest point of the isthmus, preventing the enemy from approaching the city unmolested. They hastily built fences and dug trenches along the leading face of the hill.

Late that night, one of the men went back to his home to acquire some meat and bread to help sustain himself and a few of his companions for the upcoming battle. Awakened by his entry, his wife met him as he was leaving.

"We cannot fight if we are hungry. I will come back when the fight is over," he reassured her.

"For that, you have my gratitude," she responded. "Take care you return safely."

Without all, "for that" is a simple prepositional phrase. In the sentence above, it can easily be moved to the end of the sentence and still sound passable. "You have my gratitude for that."

The man returned to the trenches about an hour before dawn. The men finished making their preparations, fortifying their positions. For all that, dawn broke to find them on the wrong hill, easily surrounded or circumvented.

With all, the emphasis implies a contradiction. The phrase no longer sounds passable at the end of the sentence, probably because the connection to the antecedent of "that" would get lost.

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Paul Rowe
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    But the idiom surely has a far wider application than you suggest, doesn't it? He was a wealthy man but, for all that, he lived like a pauper. This has nothing whatever to do with anything 'unforeseen happening'. As the OP suggests it simply means 'in spite of that'. – WS2 Mar 02 '15 at 21:17
  • @WS2 Thank you for the correction and example. – Paul Rowe Mar 02 '15 at 22:00