I think there is a tendency to overthink these things in this group.  

You can say

  More pickup trucks are sold

and you see that "more" is an adjective

The addition is of "than sedan" is a very ordinary addition of a prepositional phrase.  

you cannot say

  Pickup trucks than sedands are sold

which tells you that there is a dependent relation between "than" and either "-er" and "more" or "less".  This dependency is what strikes people as strange and is the only thing that is abberrant in the sentence.  

Phil Bralich


-----Original Message-----
>From: "Paul T. Wilson" <[log in to unmask]>
>Sent: Apr 25, 2006 8:43 AM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: conjunction or preposition
>
>Though it's idiosyncratic, it seems to me that the concept of 
>coordinating conjunctions might explain this more elegantly.
>
>Both pickup trucks and sedans are sold in some areas of California.
>
>Either pickup trucks or sedans are sold in some areas of California.
>
>I understand that
>
>(a) *more* can be adj., adv., or noun and *than* is typically a 
>conjunction or preposition,  and
>
>(b)  "more . . . than" specifies a difference in quantity that "both . . 
>. and" and "either . . . or" do not.
>
>However, together, "more . . . than" seems to function the same way as 
>the coordinating conjunctions.
>
>So I posit that *than* promotes *more* - functionally - to the status of 
>a conjunction.
>
>
>Jeanne Rodgers wrote:
>> How is "than" functioning in the following sentence, as a subordinating conjunction introducing an unconventionally placed  ellipitical clause or as a preposition?
>>
>> More pickup trucks than sedans are sold in some areas of California.
>>
>> Jeanne Rodgers
>> CSU, Sacramento
>>   
>
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