文法解釋：rather than wait for...

Question

With the economy growing at 10 percent a year Mr Paulson said it is better to implement reforms during periods of economic strength rather than wait for things to go wrong and then try and fix them.

請問上述文章為什麼要用wait原形呢？用waiting動名詞可以嗎？請解釋，謝謝。

文章來源：BBC Learning English China economic growth
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/newsenglish/witn/2007/03/070309_china.shtml

Answer 1

rather than 在詞性上有連接詞之用，也可為介係詞之用，取決因素在 than 這個字本身（than 是連接詞，也是介係詞）。
而在用法上，若其後接動詞的話，rather than 後可以為原形動詞（視 than 為連接詞），也可以是動名詞（視 than 為介係詞）。
習慣而言（idiomatically），rather than 置於句中時，以接原形動詞居多，如本句；而置於句首時，則兩者情況皆有。
你的例子是出現在句中，故以原形動詞的用法為佳。

Answer 2

文法解釋：rather than wait for... -----
Meriam Webster線上字典對"rather than"的解釋如下：
Main Entry:
1rather than
Function: conjunction
Date: 14th century
1 — used with the infinitive form of a verb to indicate negation as a contrary choice or wish rather than play violin> 2 :and not rather than resolves the problem> rather than another?> rather than sad>


Main Entry:
2rather than
Function: preposition
Date: 1595
:instead of


按照上面解釋，再看版主提問的問題內容，有"it is better to ... rather than ..."，非常符合字典解釋第一字義中１的規範：
1 — used with the infinitive form of a verb to indicate negation as a contrary choice or wish (和不定詞原形連用，陳述一項選擇或願望的否定，表示反向意思)．所以提問的句子自然就成了"... strength rather than wait for things ..."

另外，在該字義下都是作為"連接詞"使用，所以其"2 :and not"釋義中的三個例句中，從"rather than"連接的前後字的詞性來看，分別是："動詞原形 rather than 動詞原形"，"名詞 rather than 名詞 "，"形容詞 rather than 形容詞 "．所以"rather than"不是只能連接動詞原形或動名詞．

Answer 3

rather than å¯æŽ¥å¸¶ to 的不定詞、原形動詞或動名詞。
在這個句子中，rather than 對應implement，因此接wait。 
關鍵子句的結構應是:
it is better to   "implement ……rather than wait……"