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In the example sentence

  • He is taller than you but shorter than John

there are two subordinating conjunctions (than). So, is this an example of a compound-complex sentence having two co-ordinate clauses and two subordinate clauses?

Edwin Ashworth
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Sanjay
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    "Than" is a preposition, not a conjunction. The simplest way to analyse your example is to say that the NPs "you" and "John" are immediate complements of the preposition "than", thus it's a simple sentence: "He is [taller than you] [but shorter than John]", where the bracketed elements are a coordination of AdjPs not clauses. – BillJ Apr 09 '20 at 16:07
  • Than is a special word that occurs only in comparative constructions, of which there were two in this sentence before things were deleted by conjunction reduction. Now it's only the significant parts that are left. – John Lawler Apr 09 '20 at 16:32
  • Hello Bill, "Than" is defined as subordinating conjunction in all modern grammar and dictionaries whenever used for comparison .Its use as preposition is considered as archaic. Would need your help in this. Thanks – Sanjay Apr 10 '20 at 03:37

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