Re: Which part of speech?

Christopher Wright <dhasenan@...> wrote:
> 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.
>
> They're nouns:
>
> 1) Today is a good day to die.
> 2) Tomorrow will come shortly.
They're nouns in those sentences, certainly, but not in the
sentences in question.  I think some of these constructions
don't translate anyway: AFAIK you can't use 'hodie' in Latin
as a noun at all.

> Adverbials act a bit differently:
> 3) *Recently was a good time to die.
> 4) *Soon will come shortly.
But there's nothing wrong with "It was raining recently" or
"Soon, she will be going to the market", is there?

According to AHD:
http://www.bartleby.com/61/91/Y0019100.html
..."yesterday" has both nominal and adverbial senses.

	*Muke!
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