adjective or noun?

[hendypanoply]

In the sentence, "The game is baseball.", is baseball an adjective or a noun?

[TheParser]

In the sentence, "The game is baseball.", is baseball an adjective or a noun?

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Good morning, Hendypanoply.

(1) I think that all books would classify "baseball" as a noun

in your sentence. It refers to "game." That is, the game = baseball;

baseball = the game.

(2) But in "The baseball game has started," I believe that most books

call this a noun that is being used as an adjective. That is, it tells us

what kind of game: good game/ bad game/ baseball game.

Have a nice day!

[corum]

But in "The baseball game has started," I believe that most books

Here, "baseball" is a noun regarding its word category, and it functions adjectivally (premodifies another noun).

[Abstract Idea]

I thank the posters above TheParser and corum for their replies.
OK, ordinarily "baseball" is a noun and in the other example it functions adjectivally.

But regarding the original sentence:

In the sentence, "The game is baseball.", is baseball an adjective or a noun?

If we compare to sentences like:
- The girl is beautiful.
- The book is interesting.
- The car is red.

I don't any difference in the structure. Why 'beautiful', 'interesting' and 'red' above should be adjectives and 'baseball' in the original sentence a noun?

What about the following 'adjective test':
The girl is beautiful - a beautiful girl.
The book is interesting - an interesting book.
The car is red - a red car.
The game is baseball - a baseball game.

[Abstract Idea]

What about the following 'adjective test':
The girl is beautiful - a beautiful girl.
The book is interesting - an interesting book.
The car is red - a red car.
The game is baseball - a baseball game.

We may also try to negate the examples above:
The girl is not beautiful, she is ugly.
The book is not interesting, it is boring.
The car is not red, it may be white, black or yellow.
The game is not baseball, it may be soccer, chess or noun-adjective-guess.

I really can't see any difference. It looks like 'baseball' in 'The game is baseball' works as an adjective. And if we follow this line, then also 'soccer', 'chess' and 'noun-adjective-guess' should be considered adjectives in the last example above.

[2006]

In the sentence, "The game is baseball.", is baseball an adjective or a noun?

It's a noun functioning as a noun.

[philo2009]

We may also try to negate the examples above:
The girl is not beautiful, she is ugly.
The book is not interesting, it is boring.
The car is not red, it may be white, black or yellow.
The game is not baseball, it may be soccer, chess or noun-adjective-guess.

I really can't see any difference. It looks like 'baseball' in 'The game is baseball' works as an adjective. And if we follow this line, then also 'soccer', 'chess' and 'noun-adjective-guess' should be considered adjectives in the last example above.

Your confusion here stems, I would imagine, from the fact that members of ANY of the three word classes noun, adjective and adverb can fulfill the role of complement, to wit:

Tom is a boy. (NP)
Tom is tall. (ADJ)
Tom is here. (ADV)

- all different parts of speech and yet all complementing 'is'.

Thus the simple fact of standing as complement to a copula tells us essentially nothing about the grammatical status of a word, which we must therefore reckon according to the normal common-sense methods (on which I am sure I need not elaborate here!).

'Baseball' is a NOUN and can never be anything else. Even if we employ it adnominally - as in 'the baseball game' - it is simply an attributive noun, never a (true) adjective!

[Abstract Idea]

Your confusion here stems, I would imagine, from the fact that members of ANY of the three word classes noun, adjective and adverb can fulfill the role of complement, to wit:

Tom is a boy. (NP)
Tom is tall. (ADJ)
Tom is here. (ADV)

- all different parts of speech and yet all complementing 'is'.

Thus the simple fact of standing as complement to a copula tells us essentially nothing about the grammatical status of a word, which we must therefore reckon according to the normal common-sense methods (on which I am sure I need not elaborate here!).

'Baseball' is a NOUN and can never be anything else. Even if we employ it adnominally - as in 'the baseball game' - it is simply an attributive noun, never a (true) adjective!

Thank you very much philo2009. Now it is much clearer for me.

Before reading your post, the only difference I could see in the examples above came from translation.
In Portuguese we say:

- A menina é bonita. (The girl is beautiful.)
- O livre é interessante. (The book is interesting.)
- O carro é vermelho. (The car is red.)
- O jogo é de baseball. (The game is baseball.)

So in Portuguese the preposition "de" makes the difference (jogo de baseball, jogo de xadrez, jogo de damas, etc). This preposition could be translated as something like "of" - The game is *of baseball.

Also in Portuguese we have two different verbs corresponding to the English "be", namely "ser" or "estar":
- Tom is tall - Tom é alto. (ser)
- Tom is here - Tom está aqui. (estar)

Once more thank you very much for your reply.

[philo2009]

Thank you very much philo2009. Now it is much clearer for me.

Before reading your post, the only difference I could see in the examples above came from translation.
In Portuguese we say:

- A menina é bonita. (The girl is beautiful.)
- O livre é interessante. (The book is interesting.)
- O carro é vermelho. (The car is red.)
- O jogo é de baseball. (The game is baseball.)

So in Portuguese the preposition "de" makes the difference (jogo de baseball, jogo de xadrez, jogo de damas, etc). This preposition could be translated as something like "of" - The game is *of baseball.

Also in Portuguese we have two different verbs corresponding to the English "be", namely "ser" or "estar":
- Tom is tall - Tom é alto. (ser)
- Tom is here - Tom está aqui. (estar)

Once more thank you very much for your reply.

It seems that Portuguese is more 'transparent' than English in this regard!

[hendypanoply]

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Good morning, Hendypanoply.

(1) I think that all books would classify "baseball" as a noun

in your sentence. It refers to "game." That is, the game = baseball;

baseball = the game.

(2) But in "The baseball game has started," I believe that most books

call this a noun that is being used as an adjective. That is, it tells us

what kind of game: good game/ bad game/ baseball game.

Have a nice day!

So can we call this noun an adjective?
In the sentence,"The baseball game has started", has started has to be the verb.