Is "can’t help but" considered to be a confused mix of the expressions "can but" and "can’t help"? If not, what is the difference between "can help but" and "can’t help but"?
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1Are you asking what the origins of the phrase are? Nobody knows, or rather, it would take a lot of research to find them, and they would be only opinions at best. The difference between can help but and can't help but is that the second one contains the negative that triggers it, while the first one doesn't, which means that there has to be some other negative lurking around to license it, like She doesn't think I can help laughing at that. If it doesn't occur within the scope of a negative, it's ungrammatical. – John Lawler Feb 23 '15 at 19:03
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Related “All but” idiom has two meanings?; Specific usage of the word 'but' and Interpreting the meaning of 'but' as an implication for exclusion/inclusion – Mari-Lou A Feb 24 '15 at 10:03
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I can’t help but think this is a difficult question means that I have no alternative to thinking that this is a difficult question. I can help but think this is a difficult question is not something a native speaker would say. The combination can but is used in sentences such as You can but try, encouraging the person addressed to attempt a task whose outcome is uncertain.
Barrie England
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A native speaker might say something like "I can help, but think this is a difficult question"; but that's an entirely different kettle of fish. – Marthaª Sep 06 '12 at 20:56
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1@Marthaª: They might, but I would expect them all to say something like "I can help, but I think this is a difficult question". – Adam Robinson Sep 06 '12 at 21:07
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While I agree that "can help but" isn't common in modern English, it is quite common the further back you go. Although I am not sure if there is a very stringent different between the two terms, they both convey relatively the same meaning. There are numerous instances where I've come across this, especially in financial reports and metal illness documentation dating from the late to early 1800s. Don't ask. – Tucker Feb 19 '15 at 20:01
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@Tucker: metal illness => zinc poisoning? Bullet wounds? Rashes from ill-fitting armour? =-) – Mathieu K. Feb 20 '15 at 04:10
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@MathieuK. Something like that, yes. Although this one particular report was describing how putting leeches on the skull helped relieve 'migraines' that caused mental illnesses. Like epilepsy. It's amazing how far we've come in the medical domain. – Tucker Feb 22 '15 at 04:28
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@Tucker, I was having fun with the typo--'metal' instead of 'mental' =). Also, cool. – Mathieu K. Feb 23 '15 at 02:09
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The point here is the question is not about "I can help, but" it is regarding it without a comma. "I can't help but" can be correct with both a comma or without. But, "I can help but" is never correct without a comma after help. – Michael Rize Feb 27 '15 at 01:59
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Can help but Infinitive and can help Gerund are both Negative Polarity Items (NPIs).
That means that they can't occur grammatically outside the scope of some Negative trigger. So they're just fine in a Negative context (here with can't instead of can)
- I can't help thinking he got the better of us in that deal.
- I can't help but remember the smile on his face.
but they're terrible outside a negative environment (what a difference an -n't makes!)
*I can help thinking he got the better of us in that deal.
*I can help but remember the smile on his face.
Summary: If Negation is involved, look for NPIs before doing anything else.
John Lawler
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This "negative polarity" business has quite a long reach! I'm assuming @Barrie's "You can but try" falls into the category specifically because it raises doubts over how likely it is that trying will lead to succeeding. – FumbleFingers Sep 06 '12 at 20:18
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That particular but is equivalent to only and is indeed negative. As are questions, comparative and superlative constructions, and "syntactic constructions (This is it, isn’t it? Not any big ones, he didn’t), variation (so didn’t I; ain’t got none), morphology (-n’t, -free, un-), (morpho)phonology (do/don’t), intonations (‘Riiight’), and lexemes sporting negation that is overt (never), incorporated (doubt, lack), calculated (few), entailed (prohibit), or presupposed (only)" – John Lawler Sep 06 '12 at 21:25
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1Perhaps people are missing that can’t but is one of those true double-negatives that makes a positive. – tchrist Sep 06 '12 at 21:49
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1I can't help but think the first "but" in this sentence has essentially that same "only" sense. Actually, the more I think about "I can but do X", and "I cannot* but do X", the more it seems to me they can mean exactly the same thing. I do recognise that idiomatically, the can* version can imply I can do no more than X, and the *cannot* version can imply I must do X, but it still seems pretty odd that in some contexts the negation of "can" doesn't necessarily affect the meaning. – FumbleFingers Sep 06 '12 at 21:50
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@FumbleFingers, perhaps the can (I can do no more than X) sets an upper limit on what the speaker can do, while the cannot (I must do X) sets a lower limit—yet neither really suggesting any other option than X, leading to a general feeling that both are the same, since both strongly emphasize X while leaving the impression that there might maybe be other options not worth talking about. – Mathieu K. Feb 20 '15 at 04:24
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"I can help but remember the smile on his face." This sounds like bad English. Who talks or writes like that? Should be "I can't help but remember the smile on his face." That makes sense. – Michael Rize Feb 24 '15 at 10:11
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@MichaelRize: Yes, that's right. It's bad English because it's ungrammatical to use a Negative Polarity Item like this one outside the scope of a negative like not. That's why I put the asterisk before each ungrammatical sentence; to mark them as being ungrammatical. – John Lawler Feb 24 '15 at 15:36
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@JohnLawler Yeah, I realized that after I posted the comment, but I left the comment up because I think the way you presented the examples can be confused as correct grammar. In my opinion, it would be better to put a very clear "Wrong grammar examples:" above it, so that people with less of a grasp of the nuances of English will understand easier. – Michael Rize Feb 25 '15 at 00:05
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1It's standard grammatical practice to mark ungrammatical sentences with asterisks. That's how we can cite them. – John Lawler Feb 25 '15 at 05:26
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@fumblefingers I find a more likely reading of "you can but try" In German, translating the idiomatic phrase "Du kannst es nur probieren" (you have to try to find out), with nur translating "only" often enough, with an etymological relation to noch "still", often compared to near and next etc etc (I have nearly 200 characters left in this comment). I'm struggling to find where ya'll mention this interpretation. Is it not obvious? Also, if but < be + out, cp out "gone". Please excuse the language barrier: Similar idioms are you can not more than loose, or you can only loose – vectory Nov 14 '19 at 19:05
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This usage comes from a very old meaning of "but" in which it means, literally, "outside". Its original form is the Anglo-Saxon "be outan", which we can gloss as "by out", i.e. "outside". This use is still found in Scots where they might say "He's waiting but the house".
Anyway, there's your etymology lesson. As far as i know, this ancient prepositional "but" is the ancestor of all the many uses of "but" that are in English today, and it has as its not too remote ancestor the "but" of
No one but me heard the remark
which without sounding too weird , we could put equivalently as
No one outside me heard the remark.
It looks to me like a lot of the NPI uses of "but" come from this old prepositional meaning. You use this sort of but to say that nothing "outside" a particular class has interesting property X. "You can't but try" means you have no other option "outside" of trying.
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1"You can't but try" -> should be "You can but try" (as in the answer proposed by @BarrieEngland). Google it, for instance. The one with "can't" doesn't seem to exist. – Mathieu K. Feb 20 '15 at 04:09
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1I don't think that was Barrie England's point, and I disagree with you. Googling, I found this: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/can+not+but Can but try is also correct and perhaps more modern, but I believe this usage came out of gradual elision of the not in "can't but". This is where minutive buts come from, as in "Nay! We are but men", which means that we are not but men, i.e. nothing outside of men. – mander Don't reinstate Monica Feb 20 '15 at 06:06
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1On va s'coucher moins niaiseux (I'll go to bed smarter tonight), as they say around here. – Mathieu K. Feb 20 '15 at 21:48
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In some cases, I'd argue there is no out involved, as -t may be an inflectional marker. In some cases be is a better match than by, I guess, whenever it's optative, yet by matches Ger wobei "wait, [isn't it rather …]" very well. Albeit, etymology is heavily tainted by elementary school level folk etymology, and per se and (an amper- is a trader, by it I have no proof). – vectory Nov 14 '19 at 19:15
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"Help" here is not used as in to assist.
"I can't help it."
This means I can't stop/control myself, or I have no other choice.
Some examples:
I can't help but laugh at her misfortune.
When the music gets funky, I can't help but dance.
I can't help but wonder if he was just being nice to get something for himself.
I can't help it! It's involuntary.
Dean
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I wonder whether it is in any way comparable to hold in the sense "stop". – vectory Nov 14 '19 at 19:08
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Both have different meanings.
I can't help, but I know someone who can.
Meaning: I can't help, but I can refer you.
I can help, but I don't think it is possible.
Meaning: I will help you, even if it is impossible to do.
I can't help but think you are crazy.
Meaning: Your behavior compels me to think you are crazy.
No native speaker writes "I can help but .. " Because there should be a comma after help.
Mari-Lou A
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Michael Rize
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