preposition vs conjunction

Question

Diesel engines burn as much as 30 percent less fuel than gasoline engines of comparable size, as well as emitting far less carbon dioxide gas and far fewer of the other gases that have been implicated in global warming.

Is 'as well as' preposition or conjunction in the above sentence? Also what are other prepositions that can also work as conjunctions? Thank you.

Complementizers can be considered to be special subordinating conjunctions that introduce complement clauses: e.g. "I wonder whether he'll be late. I hope that he'll be on time". Some subordinating conjunctions (until and while), when used to introduce a phrase instead of a full clause, become prepositions with identical meanings. In short, it may depend how you define your terms. In what specific way does it make a difference to you how you classify such usages? — FumbleFingers, Aug 03 '16 at 20:39
In this usage, I wouldn't class 'as well as' as either a preposition or a conjunction. — Edwin Ashworth, Aug 03 '16 at 22:21
Possible duplicate of As well As, coordinating or subordinating conjunction — MetaEd, Aug 05 '16 at 15:29

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Aug 03 '16 at 21:20

1

You will also need to pay attention where a complete sentence should be punctuated. For example :"Diesel engines burn as much as 30 percent less fuel than gasoline engines of comparable size."

That's it. Then you could continue with "They emit (release) far less carbon dioxide and other harmful toxins which have been an ongoing concern for global warming.

No need for "implicated", your point is to make your statement clear. To imply is to convey a meaning but without expressing it directly. Obviously we know some of the causes of global warming.

answered Aug 03 '16 at 21:20

Akiman Barwa

114

Seems like a lot of effort devoted to a sentence that is utter nonsense to begin with. If you want to build a very fuel efficient engine, you may well choose to make it a diesel, but the fuel choice has only a small role in the fuel efficiency (volumetric or specific). Similarly with emissions - its a design choice. Efficiency and emissions are determined by design, and only weakly influenced by the fuel choice. And fuel efficiency and regulated emissions are in direct conflict with each other from a design standpoint. – Phil Sweet Aug 03 '16 at 21:51
CO2 gas vs diesel link – Phil Sweet Aug 03 '16 at 21:54
@Phil: If you burn equal volumes of fuel, the amount of CO2 released will be higher for diesel owing to its much higher energy (read carbon) content. Assuming that's true, I'm not sure OP's *as well as [emitting far less carbon dioxide gas]* is strictly kosher. Can you actually get away with "as well as" when the CO2 reduction is only true because diesels use less fuel in the first place? – FumbleFingers Aug 03 '16 at 21:59
The link was a comparison for equal power production - emissions per kWh of shaft power. – Phil Sweet Aug 03 '16 at 22:19

preposition vs conjunction

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