more than

metrovelvet

She runs faster than I.

She is more intelligent than me.

Can someone tell me why MORE THAN takes the accusative case? Never really understood why.

pickarooney

It doesn't. Strictly speaking your second sentence is incorrect and it should be "She is more intelligent than I" with (am) ellided.

metrovelvet

pickarooney wrote: »

It doesn't. Strictly speaking your second sentence is incorrect and it should be "She is more intelligent than I" with (am) ellided.

That's what I had thought. I was corrected by a D Phil Oxon. Apparantly you and I are wrong.

pickarooney

I don't know this Phil Oxon guy but maybe he has a reason for saying what he says.

metrovelvet

pickarooney wrote: »

I don't know this Phil Oxon guy but maybe he has a reason for saying what he says.

Lol. D phil oxon means a [doctorate] PHD from Oxford.

FlutterinBantam

D Phil (Oxon)

Don't forget these lads ();)

metrovelvet

Can anyone answer this question?

Donkey Oaty

It all depends on what you mean by the word "correct".

There's a good discussion of the issue here:

http://www.171english.cn/html/grammar/00005a.htm

The article is written by a woman. The DPhil (Oxon) might be more qualified than her, but is not necessarily more intelligent than she is. (See what I did there...)

pickarooney

metrovelvet wrote: »

Can anyone answer this question?

I tried, but you seem to want to take Dr. Phil's answer above anyone's, so... ask him?

Everything in the above article seems to be trying to explain why it is so rather than why it should be so. For the record, I wouldn't actually say "He's bigger than I" unless I was being obnoxiously pedantic (and probably wrong, by extension).

metrovelvet

pickarooney wrote: »

I tried, but you seem to want to take Dr. Phil's answer above anyone's, so... ask him?

Everything in the above article seems to be trying to explain why it is so rather than why it should be so. For the record, I wouldn't actually say "He's bigger than I" unless I was being obnoxiously pedantic (and probably wrong, by extension).

Yes I must ask him.

You see I'd actually like to know WHY. Is it because it relates to quantity?

You probably would say 'bigger than I' in written English if you were submitting a paper thought? But not in conversation?

pickarooney

From DO's link:

Quirk et al. agree that the objective form is the preferred choice. Like Biber, they suggest that in these constructions, than, as well as as, can be considered not a conjunction but a preposition. This reinforces the motivation to choose the objective pronoun when there is no following verb or verb phrase.

Donkey Oaty

Metro, forgetting about which is right and wrong for a moment, the difference between the status of Y in these examples:

"X is more intelligent than Y"

and

"X runs faster than Y"

is that in the first example Y is an object, while in the second example Y could be treated as an object but could also be treated as the subject of the implied verb "runs".

It's really as simple as that.

metrovelvet

Donkey Oaty wrote: »

Metro, forgetting about which is right and wrong for a moment, the difference between the status of Y in these examples:

"X is more intelligent than Y"

and

"X runs faster than Y"

is that in the first example Y is an object, while in the second example Y could be treated as an object but could also be treated as the subject of the implied verb "runs".

It's really as simple as that.

Ah thank you. Now I get it.

I never thought I'd see the day when algebra came in handy.