Janet,
I believe the nominal expressions with "ago" are adverbial as they describe "how long" in a temporal sense. There is a whole constellation of such adverbial nouns used particularly in science where (standard) units of measure are indespensible. "Long ago" seems analogous to "very good." Sometimes the gradable adjective or adverb modified is left out as in "I am 42 (years old)" i.e., I was born 42 years ago. In "She is 173 (pounds (heavy))" the adjective "heavy" is ungrammatical if not left out, though it seems to be logically there. "The deadline was just yesterday (ago)" is ungrammatical when the "ago" is supplied, though there is some logic to the situation. In "the deadline was just two days (long) ago" the adjective seems possible as a helper. The constructions seem to be overlapping. Sometimes there is an adjective or adverb that works and sometimes not.
Bruce
--- [log in to unmask] wrote:
From: "Castilleja, Janet" <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Adverbs?
Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2010 13:03:48 -0700
Could it be that the saying 'long gone,' as in 'he was long gone,' is
derived from this?
Janet
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stahlke, Herbert F.W.
Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2010 12:18 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Adverbs?
I think that comes close. The participle "gone" still shows up in the
18th c. with the sense and grammar of "ago."
Herb
-----Original Message-----
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Katz, Seth
Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2010 10:26 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Adverbs?
So, Herb, would a more contemporary paraphrase of "ago" (the used-to-be
participle) in a phrase like "many years ago" be something like "many
years that have gone"?
Seth
Dr. Seth Katz
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Bradley University
________________________________
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar on behalf of Stahlke,
Herbert F.W.
Sent: Tue 10/5/2010 9:49 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Adverbs?
I agree with Dick's analysis. Historically "ago" is a shortening of an
older past participle of "go," "agone" The prefix a- has about as
complex and ancestry and etymology as anything in English, but a lot of
words that have an a- prefix are used only postnominally or
predicatively. We can't say "an awake dog" or "an alive fish," although
other a- words like "alert" and "ashamed" can be attributive. Because
"ago" has lost all participial traces but remains postnominal, it has
become what Dick called it, a postposition. "Alert," by the way, is not
etymologically one of the a- prefix words. It was borrowed from French
in something close to its current form and would break down in French
etymology to al+ert. It first appears in English in 1598 where it is
used predicatively. The first attributive usage appears in 1712.
Herb
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Dick Veit
Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 2010 6:09 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Adverbs?
"Forty years ago" seems to function much like a prepositional phrase,
but with "ago" as a postposition rather than a preposition.
Thanks for posing this question, Janet. I look forward to being
enlightened by responses from others.
Dick
On Tue, Oct 5, 2010 at 5:47 PM, Castilleja, Janet
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hello
How do you usually analyze a structure like this: Our old beach house,
which was built forty years ago, has now vanished. What do you do with
'forty years ago'? I learned it as a noun phrase functioning as an
adverb, but I'm not sure that's the best description, especially when
working with students.
Thanks!
Janet
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