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Is "That" an adverb in the phrase "That's so not funny, John!"?

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zoliky

Is "That" an adverb in the phrase "That's so not funny, John!"?

No. It's a demonstrative pronoun. It's the subject of the sentence.

CJ

Comments  
zoliky

Is "That" an adverb in the phrase "That's so not funny, John!"?

No: the demonstratives are determinatives, whether they are used dependently or independently.


This copy is clearer than that.


There are two demonstratives in this example: the first, "this", precedes the noun "copy", of which it is dependent. Its function is that of determiner.

The second demonstrative, "that", does not directly determine a following noun, and hence is being used independently, where its function is that of 'fused' determiner-head. It's called 'fused' (i.e. combined) because the single word "that" is at the same time a determiner and also the head. We interpret "that" as "that copy".