In this sentence, "Hawick is 15 kilometers south of Abbotsford, and Kelso is 17 kilometers east of abbotsford.", what part of speech of this word "south", an adverb, a preposition, or a noun?
Sure, you can force the change to the part of speech by changing the sentence, adding a determiner which is not in the original.
It's not changing the part of speech at all, and the meaning remains the same.
Here, "15 kilometers south of Abbotsford" is a noun phrase with "south" as head. Its function is that of predicative complement of "be", a function filled by a noun or adjective phrase, but not normally by an adverb phrase.
Incidentally, as a preposition, it is used dynamically in examples like "We were travelling east"; in its static use it requires an of phrase complement, as in "It is 50 miles north of Paris".
Despite what dictionaries tell us, "south" is not an adverb.
Compass terms are primarily nouns, as is "south" in your example.
You should read the dictionary entry at the link provided. It's an adverb here.
I don't need to. It's obviously a noun.
Don't use dictionaries for grammar.
Please explain. It is not obvious to me.
The determiner "the|" can be added, as in Hawick is 15 kilometers to the south of Abbotsford.
Only nouns take determiners.
Sure, you can force the change to the part of speech by changing the sentence, adding a determiner which is not in the original.
It's not changing the part of speech at all, and the meaning remains the same.
Here, "15 kilometers south of Abbotsford" is a noun phrase with "south" as head. Its function is that of predicative complement of "be", a function filled by a noun or adjective phrase, but not normally by an adverb phrase.
Incidentally, as a preposition, it is used dynamically in examples like "We were travelling east"; in its static use it requires an of phrase complement, as in "It is 50 miles north of Paris".
Despite what dictionaries tell us, "south" is not an adverb.