http://www.englishforums.com/search/pro.htm?q=tag%3aExpressions+tag%3aAdverbs+tag%3aNoun+phrasesSearch results for 'tag:Expressions tag:Adverbs tag:Noun phrases' matching tags 'Expressions', 'Adverbs', and 'Noun phrases'en-USCSMOD (Build: 3273.32735)http://www.englishforums.com/English/TwoQuestionAboutWhere/zlzbk/post.htm#473120Tue, 05 Feb 2008 19:58:24 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:473120velimirHello Kooyeen First thank you very much for your answer In the meantime I ve got the answer on part 1 of my post It is a question of a preposition at the end of a question I understand that if for example I ask Where are you going to where is a pronoun since it can be replaced with a noun phrase like which place but in Where are you going where is an adverb here because it can be replaced by to which place what is an adverbial expression Anyway this is my interpretation of the answer I ve got on other forum Also it was my opinion that where in questions is always an adverb since it always renders some adverbial expression in answer which can be equalized with where in the question no matter where you put a preposition And generaly it is more an adverb even in situations with stranded preposition And you know it is interesting that both in Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary and Oxford ALD where is indicated as an adverb and conjunction but not as a pronoun What means that they are of my opinion I would put smiley here but I don t know how to insert it so please imagine one And one more Again thank you very much for your answer Kooyeen Velimir http://www.englishforums.com/English/AtAnytimeAnytime/bxwnx/post.htm#154850Thu, 03 Nov 2005 19:49:18 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:154850paco2004HiI understand anytime is a word proper to AmE In OED there is no entry for anytime OED contains 466 quotes using any time but only 9 quotes using anytime I believe the most formal expression in BrE is Call me at any time But Call me any time is also possible In English time adverbial noun phrases are often spoken without prepositions This preposition less adverbial noun phrase is called adverbial accusative or objective by some linguists and it is a heritage of the old Anglo Saxon grammar Because of its strangeness as a collocation in modern English I believe Webster changed the preposition less adverbial any time to anytime and entered it as an adverb in his dictionary paco http://www.englishforums.com/English/AdverbialObjectives/bvwmv/post.htmSun, 05 Jun 2005 06:59:15 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:105693paco2004Many English nouns and noun phrases can be used as adverbs They are called adverbial objectives From the standpoint of word order an adverbial objective is put as if it were an objective of a verb but actually it works as an adverbial modifier of the verb This sort of constructs comes from an Old English grammar rule that allowed ti use accusative cases of nouns as adverbs For example let s take an Old English sentence He eode ham He went home From the view of current English the word ham home would be treated as an adverb but it was the accusative of the noun ham in Old English In current English this sort of noun phrase uses is prominent especially in the case the noun phrases means time duration space direction distance measure degree manner and others Time Duration 1 Did you see him this morning 2 What time shall we go 3 She is thirty years old 4 I d like to start Wednesday the first jury day the first jury day is appositive to Wednesday 5 Please tell me what day you are free 6 The parcel arrived last week 7 They prayed all night in the cathedral 8 They walked two hours Some other examples of noun phrases of this use every day next week next Monday the day after tomorrow one of these days one day any day in this week etc Space Direction Distance 1 Today I came a different way Today is a TIME ad ob 2 Elms stood either side of the street 3 Let s go some place 4 He lives next door 5 She ll come home soon 6 Come this way please 7 We wandered north and north 8 We walked ten miles Measure 1 She was thirty years old 2 The bottles was about three quarters full 3 They stood up together high in the sea 4 He stands head and shoulders above his fellow 5 Her skin was snow white 6 It was pitch dark inside the room 7 Stars are diamond bright and there is no dew 8 The sea went mountains high Degree 1 I should not mind a bit 2 She blamed herself no end 3 She used to laugh a good great deal Manner 1 Don t look at me that way 2 He speaks good English 3 He came full speed 4 He stood there sailor fashon 5 She run upstairs two steps at a time 6 They walked barefoot 7 Our ship sailed first thing in the morning Noun Couplets 1 Bind him hand and foot 2 He smote them hip and thigh 3 We all got to go sometime reason or no reason 4 Let s fight tooth and nail 5 They discussed the matter heart to heart Some other examples of couplets day after day year after year face to face The Superlative and the Comparative 1 My father liked this hat the best 2 He runs the faster 3 She couldn t know which she liked the better 4 I don t know whose eyes would be the widest open Distribution 1 She visited the States twice a year 2 He paid 20 a pair for my shoes To my guess these collocations are so common that most of native speakers could acquire them even without knowing the concept of adverbial objectives And therefore many of grammar books currently available don t mention this and dictionaries give a definition to a noun used as an adverbial adverb as an adverb separately from the definition as a noun As for the complex adverbial objectives they are explained as simple idiomatic phrases without giving any grammatical explanation Accordingly in teaching English as a second language too the concept of adverbial objectives is rarely taught at the beginner s stages in school at least in Japan So many of English learners in Japan including me learned theses expressions one by one without knowing the mechanism why native speakers use nouns as adverbs I sometimes feel it might be better to let students know the concept of adverbial objectives at an earlier stage of English learning and it could be helpful for them to learn this kind of noun usage more efficiently But I m not sure I would like to hear opinions from English teachers especially those who teach English to ESL students about this paco