Bill,
 
You have some good questions to which I think I can respond.  
The prepositional phrase in #1 is adverbial because of its primarily placing of the event in time.  If I were to say #5, then I would be telling which particular concert is placed in time.  The word Tuesday in that sentence is adjectival, helping to identify the concert.  In #1 the article "the" already does the identifying.  
 
The same prepostional phrase in #2 clearly identifies which concert.  This is definitely an adjectival function.  In this case it is possible that the concert is already fully identified by the context, in which case the phrase would be non-restrictive, but adjectival none the less.  Similarly the clause in #3 tells us which day it is.  
 
The bare noun in #4 functions in exactly the same way as the prep. phrase in #1.  It would have to be adverbial for the same reason.  It is an adverbial noun of time.  
 
Without going into details and examples let me say that I have personally come to the conclusion that the adjectival functions are probably limited to 1) identifying, 2) classifying, 3) both (certain phrases using the word "same"), and 4) descriptive but also non-restrictive.  Also beyond the limits of this post would be the class of limiting adjectives, which have deictic and quantifying functions.  So it is often difficult to classify words according to their "usual" and specific function as one of the traditional parts of speech.  But in general terms I believe it can be done.  

Bruce

>>> [log in to unmask] 2/12/2004 2:40:32 PM >>>

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 EnglishCentral Michigan University   
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