than <it><was> first supposed

[WilliamTaft]

An example sentence using "suppose" in Longman Contemporary: There were many more deaths than was first supposed.

Is there an omitted "it" between "than" and "was?" Can "was" also be omitted?

 

[emsr2d2]

No.
Yes.

 

[WilliamTaft]

No.
Yes.

Thank you, emsr2d2.
What is the subject of the clause: "was first supposed?"
Does "what" work here: "There were many more deaths than what was first supposed?"

 

[Tarheel]

Assuming it is a clause and that it does have a subject, it would have to be "deaths".

I don't think so. Why would you need the extra word?

 

[jutfrank]

Is there an omitted "it" between "than" and "was?"

I think there is, yes—an ellipted dummy subject of the verb 'was'.

Does "what" work here: "There were many more deaths than what was first supposed?"

Yes. That's also grammatical and essentially equivalent in meaning.

Interestingly, however, the following sentence is considerably different syntactically:

There were many more deaths than were first supposed.

In this sentence, there is no ellipted dummy subject, the subject being an implied 'deaths' in an implied 'the number of deaths that'.

(I'm not altogether sure of these answers so I'd appreciate if anyone could confirm.)