I need a Grammar Nazi.

[Tracy]

I have never really had anything but the most basic grammar, and we have not started any formal grammar study beyond Grammarland and what is offered in WWE.  

 

We are doing WWE Week 10.  The sentence is:

The haymows were warm with the warmth of all the stock below, and the hay smelled dusty-sweet.  

 

It says that below is an adverb because it tells where the stock was.  I get that that is definition of an adverb--where something is.  But I don't understand why that makes sense.  It would seem to me to be an adjective describing the stock.  Can someone help me make sense out of this so I can explain it to dd?

[Clear Creek]

I'm not a grammar nazi, but I would guess it is an adverb because there is an implied verb there - you could also say "the warmth of all the stock located below" or "the warmth of all the stock that were below."  Just a guess, though :001_smile:   I could be totally wrong, and whatever you do, please, please don't ask me to diagram that sentence.

[ThatHomeschoolDad]

Ich bin ein Grammar Nazi.

 

The haymows were warm with the warmth of all the stock below...

 

Grammarphobia says below can be an adverb or a preposition:

 

Most authorities will tell you that “below†functions as either an adverb (“they bought the house belowâ€) or a preposition (“the basement below the houseâ€).

The way to tell the difference is to look for an object of “below.†If there’s no object present, “below†is an adverb. If an object is expressed, it’s a preposition.

Afterward, it goes on for a whole page, quoting what various dictionaries state.

You could say preposition in this case, since the stock was below, but the object of the prep is implied, as in The haymows were warm with the warmth of all the stock below THEM (below the haymows).  However, diagramming the whole thing, you get:

 

 

So, yeah it is ultimately modifying the verb were, so it's part of an adverb phrase.  I think that's a bit different from calling it an adverb, but that's quibbling.  Adverb it is.

 

Das ist ausgezeichnet!

 

[Violet Crown]

To restate some of what's been said above, you can either consider it a preposition that doesn't have an object, or, defining prepositions which wander about object-less to be adverbs, consider it an adverb.

 

That it isn't an adjective is clear from the impossibility of fitting it between the determiner and the noun, the comfiest place for an adjective:

 

*the below stock

 

While adjectives may poetically traverse to the far sides of their nouns, they should always be happy in their rightful spot.

[Word Nerd]

I prefer "guru," but I'll give it a go. :)

 

In that sentence, the implication is that the haymows were warm with the warmth of all the stock THAT WAS below THEM. If you diagrammed it that way, below them would be an adverb phrase modifying was. That seems to be what the answer key is going for.

 

However, because the implied words that would make a relative clause are omitted, I'm inclined to agree with you. A parallel example would be

The boy outside is my son.

In that sentence, outside is identifying boy (Which one?) and would be an adjective.

Likewise, your below would hang from stock in the diagram--I think you're right to consider it an adjective. There is nothing to hang it from as an adverb.

Outside isn't describing the boy (he isn't "the outside boy") but rather telling where he is.

[Violet Crown]

It's identifying him (which boy?). If you diagram it, outside will hang from boy, not is.

 

Possibly that's just evidence for the inadequacy of the traditional diagraming method. Which linguists, in fact, have abandoned entirely as a grammatical tool.

 

Besides, all sorts of things seem to dangle from nouns in the traditional diagram: pronouns, determiners, other nouns... none of which are thereby adjectives.

 

Consider The boy outside won the election, if you prefer (He didn't win the election outside.), or The boy on the porch [adjective phrase] does ballet. (He doesn't do ballet on the porch.)

This seems to be strong evidence likewise for the inadequacy of a grammatical method that relies on examining primarily the meaning of a word or phrase, rather than its function in the sentence.

 

So let's look at the function, which is less muddy than looking at the meaning. Both 'below,' in the original example, and 'outside,' in yours, easily take a noun phrase complement.

 

all the stock below

all the stock below the haymows

 

the boy outside

the boy outside the house

 

This noun phrase complement (or, if we prefer, object) is possible for prepositions, but not for adjectives.

 

*green the house

*uncomfortable my fourth glass of whiskey

... and so on.

 

I suppose one could claim that the entire prepositional phrases 'outside the house' and 'below the haymows' would be adjectives; but then we've just created a whole class of adjectives that don't behave like adjectives in any way.

[Violet Crown]

Prepositional phrases function either as adjectives or as adverbs. They are adjective phrases when they modify nouns.

1. Only if by "function ... as adjectives or as adverbs" you mean "can modify noun phrases or verb phrases." That really doesn't seem sufficient reason to call a prepositional phrase an adjective or an adverb. Because they don't resemble adjectives or adverbs in any other way.

2. No, they aren't.

 

See http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/prepositionalphrase.htm

 

If we say, for example,

I met a man from Connecticut.

of course man is a noun (the direct object of met) and the prepositional phrase from Connecticut modifies (describes) man, so it is classified as an adjective phrase.

No, it's not. It's a prepositional phrase which is modifying a noun phrase.

 

 

Even if something is commonly used as another part of speech, if its function is to modify a noun (or pronoun), it's an adjective in that instance.

No, it isn't.

 

Let's try to make "from Connecticut" do various adjectivish things.

 

I am fat; he is fatter; they are fattest.

*I am from Connecticut; he is from Connecticuter; they are from Connecticutest.

*I am from Connecticut; he is more from Connecticut; they are most from Connecticut. (That is the most from Connecticut minivan I've ever seen.)

 

The green light shone greenly.

My violent cat growls violently.

*The senator from Connecticut slithers from Connecticutly.

 

Proust ate a fat, fluffy, French madeleine.

*Proust ate a fat, fluffy, from Connecticut madeleine.

 

My uncle is Polish. My Polish uncle reads Dante.

*My goat is from Connecticut. My from Connecticut goat reads Dante.

 

That sonnet is very uneven.

Your gills are surprisingly green.

*Some corporations are remarkably from Connecticut.

 

I vote Not an adjective.

[Kalmia]

*The senator from Connecticut slithers from Connecticutly.

 

 

This sentence may be grammatically incorrect, but having worked in CT, I believe it is true. The Connecticut Slither. LOL! You may have coined a new political phrase.

 

Voting for adverb. Below answers the question "Where?" Though we must consider the fact that professional authors do not always choose to follow the "rules" when they write, so "below" could also be a preposition with a purposely deleted object (left out to keep a certain number of beats to the line or one of those other wild and crazy things writers like to do when they play with words :-). If this is the case, that would make the sentence a bad choice for a grammar text.

[Word Nerd]

This morning I saw a Facebook post that said, "See the below article." Here's a related Grammarphobia (written by Patricia O'Connor, author of Woe Is I and Words Fail Me) post that addresses the same issue we're talking about.

 

So the usual order would be “Click on the link below,†an arrangement in which “below†is an adverb. 

 

...

 

All four dictionaries—the OED, M-W Collegiate, Webster’s Third,and American Heritage—would classify “below†as an adverb in usages like “offices on the floor below†… “in the valley below†… “a grade belowâ€â€¦ “a temperature of 40 below,†and so on.

In examples like those, “below†may not look like an adverb but it is. It might sometimes help to imagine an unstated word like “located†or “positioned†in there somewhere: “the offices on the floor [located] below.â€

 

[Violet Crown]

The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language prefers adjective; but they also don't think there's a lot invested in the adverb-vs-adjective question there.

[Ellie]

Adverbs are the trickiest of all parts of speech. It is why Easy Grammar teaches them last. :-)