Re: Which part of speech?

Gregory Gadow palsalge
>I should know this, but my brain keeps coming up empty (like that hasn't
>ever happened before.)
>
>In the sentences, "It is raining today" and "Yesterday, she went to the
>market", what part of speech is 'today' and 'yesterday'? I want to say
>that they are acting as adverbs, but that doesn't seem right.
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>Gregory Gadow
They're nouns:

1) Today is a good day to die.
2) Tomorrow will come shortly.

Adverbials act a bit differently:
3) *Recently was a good time to die.
4) *Soon will come shortly.

In English, certain nouns can receive an unmarked temporal-locative case:
5) I attended the Northwest Conference on Linguistics [NP last year].
6) John's going to visit his cousin [NP next week].

These alternate with prepositional phrases:
7) Mary will attend Sakuracon [PP in two weeks].
8) Gilgamesh traversed Cuba [PP in CE 1381].

So we must assume that something's providing the temporal-locative case
(well, theta role, really; I don't know how this would accord with UTAH).
It's simplest to assume that a preposition is the source of case and theta
role.

Still, as shown in (1-4), "today" "yesterday" etc. are nominal, not
adverbial.

I enjoy syntax, can you tell?

-Chris Wright

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