Dick,
My idea of a phrase is a group of one or more words functioning as a
group (below the level of clause), so single word phrases are no
problem. That, of course, is pretty standard. And they are
characterized by their heads, but sometimes hard to pin down when the
head is all the evidence we have. The question might be whether these
can be expanded as noun phrases, and that's a little harder, but not
impossible. "All our tomorrows". "All our todays." "All our yesterdays
have lighted fools the way to dusty death (from Macbeth)." "Now" is
more problematic. Bruce's examples work for me--"Now is the time for
all good men..." How about "This now is better than that one?" It's a
stretch. I think "now" would be more typically an adverb, and it might
be a stretch to call it a noun in your example. "Now he leaps." "Now he
falls". "Then he leaps". "Then he falls." "He now enters". *"He today
enters". I think they act differently, that "today" is more noun than
"now" is, which is why it feels so awkward in a typical adverb slot.
That would be a structural grammar answer, I suppose. I'm still
wrestling with Langacker's notion that we can come up with a semantic
definition for noun. The most prototypical members of the category
would be proper nouns and all those "bounded entities" we meet in the
physical world. But other more abstract entities are somehow granted
the status of thing by having noun status. "Today" and "yesterday" are
more bounded than "now" is. "Now" might be the polar opposite of
"forever", which can also be both noun and adverb. They both seem
unbounded by definition, not so much a period as less than period or
beyond all periods. So it would make sense that they are special.
Does that match your thinking?
Craig
Craig,
>
>
>
> Would all of these be noun phrases functioning adverbially? (This is a
> genuine question, not a challenge.)
>
>
>
> He arrives a week from Thursday.
>
> He arrives Thursday.
>
> He arrives this afternoon.
>
> He arrives tomorrow.
>
> He arrives today.
>
> He arrives now.
>
>
>
> The first three seem to be noun phrases, but what about the last three?
>
>
>
> Dick Veit
>
> ________________________________
>
> Richard Veit
> Department of English
> University of North Carolina Wilmington
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Craig Hancock
> Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2008 12:42 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Adverb?
>
>
>
> Bruce,
> I wonder about the confusion that might be caused by 3b) below: "A
> noun phrase referring to a time period may be called an "adverbial
> phrase."" My own tendency would be to say that it is a noun phrase
> functioning adverbially within this context. It is also possible for the
> same phrase (though it refers to a time period) to act in a different
> role. "Last summer was hot." (Last summer as subject). "I hated last
> summer." (Last summer as direct object complement of "hated".) I don't
> think a noun like "summer" is an adverbial noun outside of context.
> He left home. He went home. The first is transitive, the second
> intransitive. The verb has an influence on the functional role.
> We also have adverb phrases, like "so quickly" or "too often." I
> would call them "adverb phrases" because an adverb functions as head.
> To me, a "phrase" would refer to the internal structure of the word
> group. Function (like adverbial) would be somewhat independent of that.
>
> Craig
>
> Bruce Despain wrote:
>
> Janet,
>
>
>
> I think that explaining "last summer" in your sentence needs to point
> out a number of relationships.
>
>
>
> 1) It is a phrase, in that it consists of more than a single word.
>
> 1a) The (operational) limiting adjective "last" modifies the noun
> "summer" designating a seasonal part of a year.
>
> 1b) "Summer" is one of those nouns that refers to a time period.
>
> 2) The phrase functions in the predicate as temporal modification.
>
> 2a) Temporal modification may be carried out by single words, which are
> then called "adverbs."
> 2b) Temporal modification carried out by phrases are called "adverbial
> phrases."
>
> 3) A noun that refers to a time period may often be used in the
> predicate by itself as temporal modification.
>
> 3a) Such nouns are often called adverbial nouns.
>
> 3b) A noun phrase referring to a time period may be called an "adverbial
> phrase."
>
>
>
> The adverbial phrase in this case "last summer" is modifying the whole
> subject-predicate combination "Reports of flying saucers were frequent."
> Such phrases have been called "adverbial adjuncts" in the sense that
> they are not licensed by the verb phrase, as many adverbial phrases are.
> Such phrases are more freely attached to the sentence, much like
> sentence adverbs (never, sometimes, always, immediately, etc.) regularly
> are.
>
>
>
> Bruce
>
>
>>>> "Castilleja, Janet" <[log in to unmask]>
> <mailto:[log in to unmask]> 02/20/08 4:27 PM >>>
>
> How do you guys handle this kind of a sentence:
>
>
>
> Reports of flying saucers were frequent last summer.
>
>
>
> Do you call 'last summer' a noun phrase functioning as an adverb or do
> you just call it an adverb phrase?
>
>
>
> Janet Castilleja
>
> Heritage University
>
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