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
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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