Subordinate Clause?

vsuresh

Hi

I have a question on the bolded portion of the sentence. I saw this sentence in this website.

https://www.ieltspodcast.com/ielts-vocabulary/grammatical-range-and-accuracy /

Children often play video games (independent clause), rather than (subordinating conjunction) conversing with their parents (dependent clause).

Children [often play video games rather than converse with their parents].

You have the analysis wrong on two counts:

1. The main (independent) clause is the whole sentence.

2. "Rather than" is not a subordinating conjunction but a coordinating one. It links the two verb phrases (underlined).

Note that the verb in the second coordinate should be "converse", not "conversing".

vsureshMy question. Shouldn't a clause have a subject and a predicate?

See above. The coordinates are not clauses but verb phrases. The subject of the sentence is "children", and the predicate is the whole of the bracketed sequence.

CalifJim

vsureshShouldn't a clause have a subject and a predicate?

A clause can have an implicit subject. In this case it's "children".

I notice they called 'rather than' a conjunction; I would have said it was a (compound) preposition. The Merriam-Webster dictionary has an entry for 'rather than' that calls it a preposition meaning 'instead of'.

CJ

It's a coordinating conjunction because it links two verb phrases; something that prepositions don't do.

The meaning of coordinative 'X rather than Y' is "X, not Y".

Don't trust dictionaries for grammar!

Found online:

We can assume that there are strong reasons that favour going to med school rather than going to law school.
Do you often feel you are in control of a situation rather than being out of control?
Spend energy on becoming more self-aware and exercising self-management, rather than taking things personally.
This reflects the importance of being educated rather than having a product or certificate through education.

I doubt that these, and the hundreds of others of this form, are all wrong.

CJ

CalifJimA clause can have an implicit subject. In this case it's "children".I notice they called 'rather than' a conjunction; I would have said it was a (compound) preposition. The Merriam-Webster dictionary has an entry for 'rather than' that calls it a preposition meaning 'instead of'.

I understand. Thank you, CJ.

Suresh

anonymousDon't trust dictionaries for grammar!

Many times I have felt I should refer to them for the authentic information. You mean even standard ones such as Oxford and Merriam Webster's do not have correct information.

CalifJimI doubt that these, and the hundreds of others of this form, are all wrong.

Noted. Thank you, CJ.

Suresh

CalifJim

Found online:

We can assume that there are strong reasons that favour going to med school rather than going to law school.
Do you often feel you are in control of a situation rather than being out of control?
Spend energy on becoming more self-aware and exercising self-management, rather than taking things personally.
This reflects the importance of being educated rather than having a product or certificate through education.

I doubt that these, and the hundreds of others of this form, are all wrong.

CJ

It depends what you mean by "wrong". The examples you cite are all grammatically fine, but if are you saying they come from sources which claim that "rather than" is a preposition then, yes, I would say that is a wrong analysis as far as the part of speech is concerned.

The examples all exhibit the same structure as the OP's, i.e. "rather than" introduces a constituent that is syntactically coordinate. This is why it has been reclassified as a coordinator, as the formula I mentioned before suggests.