OK, /lit/, I am not an native English speaker, but isn't

Comparatives like "than" usually place both nouns in the same status and therefore the same case

e.g. "Neither he nor I could have forseen this"

But "than" is often used prepositionally, especially colloquially, and prepositions DO alter the case

https://motivatedgrammar.wordpress.com/2012/06/13/than-i-and-than-me/

>>8727944
It's just a stupid idiomatic phrase that nobody should be using anyway
>X person has opinion on moral issue
>Everyone who likes said questionably good thing gets angry but have no legitimate arguments to defend themselves with
>"Bbbbut X is just being p r e t e n s h u s !"

>>8727944
> I am holier than thou
Correct; both pronouns are in the nominative.

> I am holier than thee
Incorrect. One is nominative, the other is oblique. The verb 'is' does not take an object.

>>8727978
I am Dog

The Bounty Hunter

>>8727994
Your point?

>>8727944
Thou is the subject. "I am holier than thou art." It's the subject of a dependent clause.

>>8727944
I imagine it's a fragment from 'I am holier than thou art,' which is correct, since there 'than' is a conjunction connecting two clauses rather than a preposition.

>>8727944

Think of it as having an implied verb of being after it: 'Holier than thou (art)' (i.e., holier than you [are]).
So it's fine grammatically. An analogy would be something like 'She was shorter than he (was)'.
It is true though that 'than' can be used as a preposition, which would call for an object in the proper case. 'She was shorter than him' is also correct then

>>8727960
>>8727978
>>8728015
>>8728018
Thank you all, I understand it now. I had a hard time wrapping my head around the first reply, but all these posts made it more clear to me.

It brought a new problem for me, though, but it is about my native language. In French, we would say:

"Je suis plus saint que toi."
("I am more holy than thee.")

And we never say something like:
"Je suis plus saint que tu."
("I am more holy than thou.")

Even though we could say:
"Je suis plus saint que tu ne l'es."
("I am more holy than you are."

I don't get it. Why does it work a certain way in a language, but not in the other? Isn't that a part of grammar more fundamental and abstract that is less prone to changes from language to language?

I don't expect answers to this here, but I am asking in the case of one of you speaking French or having notice the same kind of changes between languages.

>>8728061
Just to be clear, in the third example, it should be:
("I am more holy than thou art/are".)

>>8728061
French has the concept of 'emphatic' or 'prepositional' pronouns.

'Emphatic' pronouns are used in some constructions like the 'than' construction.

> Je suis plus savant que toi
The 'toi' is emphatic.

> Je t'aime!
> Moi?!
The 'moi' is emphatic; it would be incorrect to write 'te?'

This same construction, using an 'emphatic' form of a pronoun, is sometimes seen also in English.

> Who's there?
> Me?!

> He's cleverer than me!
Some puritans of England would consider this sentence 'incorrect', as the 'me' really ought to be in the subjective/nominative case (as 'I').

https://www.lawlessfrench.com/grammar/stressed-pronouns/

Native Briton here, so my French may not be so good.

File: a-language-is-a-dialect-with-an-army-and-navy-quote-1.jpg (39KB, 620x407px) Image search: [Google]

39KB, 620x407px

>>8728082
It puts a convenient label on it, but it doesn't explain the reasoning behind it. After reflection, I like the English "puritanical" way better.

>Native Briton here, so my French may not be so good.
Don't worry, I am from Québec.

>>8728082
>>8728137
Never mind. I was focusing on the 'emphatic' part. It works as a preposition, so it is not an ellipse like in English. It makes sense, now.