Comparative clause

Question

This time, the political overtones are just as strong and relations perhaps even more fraught as the U.S. and Iran face off once again on Tuesday in Qatar.

The Associated Press.

Is the "as strong and relations perhaps even more fraught as the U.S. and Iran face off once again on Tuesday in Qatar" a comparative clause?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

anonymous
This time, the political overtones are just as strong and relations perhaps even more fraught as the U.S. and Iran face off once again on Tuesday in Qatar.
The Associated Press.
Is the "as strong and relations perhaps even more fraught as the U.S. and Iran face off once again on Tuesday in Qatar" a comparative clause?

No. The two implicit comparative clauses are these:

just as strong (this time) [as at another unspecified time]
perhaps even more fraught (this time) [than at another unspecified time]

'this time' is recovered from the beginning of the sentence, and the unspecified time can probably be recovered from previous sentences in the same text.

as the U.S. and Iran face off once again on Tuesday in Qatar is an adverbial clause of time and is not involved in the comparison. 'as' here is equivalent to 'while'.

CJ

Comparative clause

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