I don't think I'd try it on undergraduates, but it's be fun with grad students.

Herb

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Castilleja, Janet
Sent: Wednesday, October 06, 2010 12:32 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Adverbs?

I noticed its resemblance to a preposition.  I looked it up in Quirk, et al, where they referred to it as a postposed adverb, but they had it listed under prepositional meanings.  I'm not sure about trying to teach students about postpositions, though.

Janet

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Stahlke, Herbert F.W.
Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 2010 7:49 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]<mailto:[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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