As Such

The second definition is the one we concern ourselves with here. The slippage in use of “as such” comes from a confusion of “As this thing” and “Because of this thing.” These two phrases appear at first to be alike, but if you look harder you will see that they are not: “Because of this thing” is a causal phrase (you know this because it has “because” in it), but “As this thing” describes a state of being, not a causal relationship.

Traditionally, as such was a simple prepositional phrase with the pronoun such as the complement of the preposition as.

For a long time I thought the difficulty with the phrase was “such.”  The “such” in “as such” is confusing, because it’s hard to recognise what part of speech it is here: a pronoun.  I, you, it — these are your garden variety pronouns, as it were.  This, that, these — those are slightly more unexpected, and you would be forgiven for considering them articles.  But “such” is a dark horse: a demonstrative pronoun that you could be forgiven for labelling an adjective.  It turns out not to make any difference, though, because you can call it an adjective, you can call it a pronoun — you can even, as my mother once said under different circumstances, call it a cup of tea — I don’t think it’s the problem.  I think the problem is “as.”

British readers, take note!  (Americans, you can put your feet up for a sec).  In your nation, “as” is frequently used in place of “since,” e.g., “Marilyn is exhausted, as she has been running after George all day.”

☞  In “as such,” “as” does not mean “since”: in “as such,” “as” means “like.”  Ergo, “as such” means “like such,” not “since such.”

If you prefer to pay attention to such (back on deck, Americans), may I suggest the following?:  Because “such” is a pronoun, it requires a noun antecedent.  Pronouns only make sense if there is a noun for them to refer back to (“pronoun” actually means “for noun” — it substitutes for the noun).  Look at the following sentences:

Marcia loves Carol.  She’s very happy about this.

See how it’s not clear what that “she” refers back to?  Could be Marcia; could be Carol (let’s hope it’s Carol. Otherwise, poor Marcia).  You shouldn’t use a pronoun unless it’s clear what that pronoun is referring back to  (for what it’s worth, I call pronouns that don’t do that “floating referents”).  Now consider these two sentences:

The list includes puppies, televisions, and pieces of string.  As such, kittens are exempt.

What does “such” refer back to, clearly?  If you look, you’ll see that the answer is, “nothing.”  So you can’t use it.