analyze the sentence

[hitinvo]

Read the sentence below:
Bats, balls, and gloves arrived in cloth sacks from friends back home.
What part of speech of the red word?
What kind of phrase of the underline phrase?
thanks,

[SoothingDave]

Not a teacher.

I believe "back home" in this case is a prepositional phrase, acting as an adjective. Which friends? The ones back home.

Another wording would be "from friends at home" or "from friends from home."

[TheParser]

Not a teacher.

I believe "back home" in this case is a prepositional phrase, acting as an adjective. Which friends? The ones back home.

Another wording would be "from friends at home" or "from friends from home."

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

Hello, SoothingDave.

(1) Just to thank you for your great analysis.

(2) I have been fruitlessly looking in my books and on the Web for a

good explanation of "back home," so I was delighted to find your post.

(3) May I tweak it just a tiny bit?

(4) I think the "full" sentence is something like:

The gifts arrrived from friends [who are] back at home.

(a) at home = prepositional phrase that modifies are.

(b)back = adverb that modifies at home.

(c)back home = an adverbial phrase (minus at for idiomatic

reasons) that -- as you pointed out -- is being used in an

adjectival sense to modify friends (because we have deleted

who are).

(5) Thanks again for putting me on the right track. I always learn

so much from your posts

[SoothingDave]

Thank you for the kind words. I try to help when I can, I find the subject interesting, though I am an amateur.

I don't know if "back" is an adverb, but it is interesting how you can unravel the shorthand we sometimes say that must seem mystifying to others.