Posted: Fri Sep 10, 2004 5:06 am
It is interesting that "teaches school" is considered a "sentence". I believe it is in fact in "a category of a phrase" because "sentence" or "clause" must have at least "a subject + a verb", isn't it? I think the categorization is based on increasing "an efficiency of a classification".
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Yes. The term 'sentential' needs to be understood with the slightly extended meaning of 'referring to a sentence or a (major) part thereof'. The similiarities here clearly outweigh the differences, in that exactly the same two pronouns ('which' and 'as'), and only those two, may take sentences, complete or partial, as antecedents.
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How about "than"? When I came across a sentence with "than", I think it is similar with "as" when it comes to "elliptical sentential antecedent".
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An interesting idea, but with one fatal flaw, which is that than-clauses modify adjectives or adverbs, while relative clauses (of which the sentential is a very particular kind) modify only nominals.
The apparent pronominality of 'than' in the cases you cite is due simply to ellipsis. To see why, it's probably best to go back to the most basic kind of than-sentence, to see how it works: in
[1] That book is more interesting than this one.
what we are really saying is
[1a] That book is more interesting than this one IS.
or, reconstituted fully (if unidiomatically):
[1b] That book is more interesting than this one IS INTERESTING.
in other words, one book is interesting to a greater extent (i.e. more) than another book is interesting. The than-clause adverbially modifies the adjective phrase 'more interesting' by specifying in comparison with what the statement applies.
If we now replace the two-word phrase [more+ADJ] with a single comparative form, which has the meaning of 'more' built in to it (so to speak), the same thing applies, even if the reconstituted full form sounds even less idiomatic than in the case of [1], so that
[2] He is taller than I am.
means
[2a] He is taller than I am TALL.
since 'taller' represents 'more tall'.
And there is, of course, no difference where the than-clause modifies an adverb rather than an adjective, so that
[3] He runs faster than you do.
represents putative full-form
[3a] He runs faster (i.e. 'fast to a greater degree') than you run fast.
We might also, rather than a simple comparison of two things or people as in the examples above, have a comparison between, say, reality and expectation, as in
[4] He ran faster than (we had) expected.
, elliptical for
[4a] He ran faster than we had expected THAT HE WOULD RUN FAST.
The extent of the ellipsis may be greater but the principle, once again, remains the same.
If we turn now to 'as' and attempt, in the same way, to insert supposedly ellipted words into a sentential as-clause on the assumption that it also is merely a conjunction in disguise, we run up against difficulties. Consider, for instance, the sentential clause of
[5] As I was saying, he's a very good student.
Let us now treat 'as' as a conjunction, and attempt to reinsert what must then have been ellipted. Clearly, 'I was saying' cannot be considered a complete phrase since it lacks an object. If 'as' is a conjunction, then the object must have been ellipted. What then was it? As nothing seems to present itself naturally from the context, let us try an expletive 'it'. What do we then get?
[5a] *As I was saying it, he's a very good student.
- a nonsentence! And, indeed, whatever noun or pronoun we may try to insert, we will similarly end up producing nonsense.
In other cases, although we may produce a structurally acceptable sentence, it clearly does not have the intended meaning. If, for instance, we insert an 'it' in the predicate-focused sentential as-clause of
[6] She has resigned following the scandal, AS she was obliged to do.
we get semantically different, not to say peculiar,
[6a] ?She has resigned following the scandal, AS she was obliged to do it.
where the subordinate clause has now become an adverbial clause of reason (containing a pronoun with no apparent referent), and has effectively lost all connection with the original.
For these reasons, I hope you can understand why we reckon sentential 'as' to be a true pronoun (if one limited in scope), whereas 'than', despite certain superficial similarities, is only ever a conjunction.
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Yes. The term 'sentential' needs to be understood with the slightly extended meaning of 'referring to a sentence or a (major) part thereof'. The similiarities here clearly outweigh the differences, in that exactly the same two pronouns ('which' and 'as'), and only those two, may take sentences, complete or partial, as antecedents.
******************************************************
How about "than"? When I came across a sentence with "than", I think it is similar with "as" when it comes to "elliptical sentential antecedent".
******************************************************
An interesting idea, but with one fatal flaw, which is that than-clauses modify adjectives or adverbs, while relative clauses (of which the sentential is a very particular kind) modify only nominals.
The apparent pronominality of 'than' in the cases you cite is due simply to ellipsis. To see why, it's probably best to go back to the most basic kind of than-sentence, to see how it works: in
[1] That book is more interesting than this one.
what we are really saying is
[1a] That book is more interesting than this one IS.
or, reconstituted fully (if unidiomatically):
[1b] That book is more interesting than this one IS INTERESTING.
in other words, one book is interesting to a greater extent (i.e. more) than another book is interesting. The than-clause adverbially modifies the adjective phrase 'more interesting' by specifying in comparison with what the statement applies.
If we now replace the two-word phrase [more+ADJ] with a single comparative form, which has the meaning of 'more' built in to it (so to speak), the same thing applies, even if the reconstituted full form sounds even less idiomatic than in the case of [1], so that
[2] He is taller than I am.
means
[2a] He is taller than I am TALL.
since 'taller' represents 'more tall'.
And there is, of course, no difference where the than-clause modifies an adverb rather than an adjective, so that
[3] He runs faster than you do.
represents putative full-form
[3a] He runs faster (i.e. 'fast to a greater degree') than you run fast.
We might also, rather than a simple comparison of two things or people as in the examples above, have a comparison between, say, reality and expectation, as in
[4] He ran faster than (we had) expected.
, elliptical for
[4a] He ran faster than we had expected THAT HE WOULD RUN FAST.
The extent of the ellipsis may be greater but the principle, once again, remains the same.
If we turn now to 'as' and attempt, in the same way, to insert supposedly ellipted words into a sentential as-clause on the assumption that it also is merely a conjunction in disguise, we run up against difficulties. Consider, for instance, the sentential clause of
[5] As I was saying, he's a very good student.
Let us now treat 'as' as a conjunction, and attempt to reinsert what must then have been ellipted. Clearly, 'I was saying' cannot be considered a complete phrase since it lacks an object. If 'as' is a conjunction, then the object must have been ellipted. What then was it? As nothing seems to present itself naturally from the context, let us try an expletive 'it'. What do we then get?
[5a] *As I was saying it, he's a very good student.
- a nonsentence! And, indeed, whatever noun or pronoun we may try to insert, we will similarly end up producing nonsense.
In other cases, although we may produce a structurally acceptable sentence, it clearly does not have the intended meaning. If, for instance, we insert an 'it' in the predicate-focused sentential as-clause of
[6] She has resigned following the scandal, AS she was obliged to do.
we get semantically different, not to say peculiar,
[6a] ?She has resigned following the scandal, AS she was obliged to do it.
where the subordinate clause has now become an adverbial clause of reason (containing a pronoun with no apparent referent), and has effectively lost all connection with the original.
For these reasons, I hope you can understand why we reckon sentential 'as' to be a true pronoun (if one limited in scope), whereas 'than', despite certain superficial similarities, is only ever a conjunction.