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On 2010-10-06, at 11:19 AM, Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar wrote:
> I would also wonder about "before" and "after" and "past" in "many
> years before," "many years after," and "many years past." Are these all
> "postpositions"?
No, I don't think so. I'd call them prepositions even though they don't have an object, but traditionally they are adverbs. In the PP (or AdvP if you like) "many years after", "many years" functions as a modifier. This is different from "many years ago", where "many years" is a complement, likely an object, of 'ago'.
Best,
Brett
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Brett Reynolds
English Language Centre
Humber College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
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