a specific cause from among the host of associations

[Wookie]

By adopting Golden HMail, you can choose to support a specific cause from among the host of associations supported by HanMail.

This is about an email service.

I've read a thread regarding "from among" but I'm not sure why it's correct. Does "among" serve as a noun?

I'd like to know if "among" is necessary.
Would it change the meaning if "among" is left out?

 

[brian]

Interesting question. No, it's not a noun. It's similar to the following: The magician pulled a rabbit from inside the hat. In this sentence, inside is a preposition; the noun version would be pulled a rabbit from the inside of the hat.

In a sense, you can consider the entire phrase, inside the hat or among the host [...], as a kind of noun, whereupon from acts like a normal preposition.

It's kind of difficult to explain. I have never thought about this construction.

In any case, it's often somewhat redundant because you can simply say pulled a rabbit from the hat (without inside) or a specific cause from the host of (without among). I don't really know why we sometimes include it.