Bill, I'm going to be dogmatic and say that prepositional phrases are always either adjectival or adverbial. (Am I right, Martha??) If "on Tuesday" were adjectival, what would it be modifying? Christine in Baltimore -----Original Message----- From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Spruiell, William C Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2004 4:41 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: S V AdvP/AdjP (was Re: diagramming question) I keep wondering why, in sentences such as #1, the prepositional phrase is analyzed as adverbial: #1 The concert is on Tuesday. I don't mind the adverbial analysis, but I can't figure out why I couldn't analyze it as adjectival instead. The fact that it specifies time is not, by itself, grounds for ruling out an adjectival interpretation; the same kind of expression in sentences such as #2 is adjectival: #2 The concert on Tuesday is going to be much more expensive than the one on Thursday. Likewise, if all temporal information were adverbial, I'd have to analyze the wh-clause in #3 as an adverbial clause: #3 I can't recall a day when all of the students showed up for class on time. I'd rather treat that as a low-frequency kind of relative clause modifying 'day' - for one thing, it's not frontable the way adverbial clauses are. That still leaves the question about what to do with a bare noun, as in #4: #4 The concert is Tuesday. I can easily think of situations in which I'd use 'Tuesday' as a full adjectival form, though: #5 The Tuesday concert is more expensive than the Thursday concert. So I'm left thinking that I can get away with viewing 'on Tuesday' and 'Tuesday' in 4-5 as an adjectival constituents. Am I missing something major, here? Again, I don't want to argue against the adverbial interpretation, but I'd like to argue that the adjectival interpretation is *a* valid one. Bill Spruiell Dept. of English Central Michigan University To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/ To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/