Phrasal type shifting

David Craig points out an interesting usage in today's Frazz: "They're for just because."

I discussed the process of turning phrases into modifiers in "Phrasally grateful", 10/18/2007:

If you run out of conventional adjectives and adverbs, the English language stands ready to help. Just package an evocative phrase or two with an appropriate prosodic inflection, and you're on your way […]

As the Frazz example illustrates, you can also use a similar process to make noun phrases, though I think it's much less common.

Here's the whole strip:

There also seem sometimes to be quasi-phrasal extensions of the "Because NOUN" pattern, like this one:

We will skip the discussion of whether assimilation itself is a “racist” goal, because jesus christ fuck you grad school.