[Grammar] Prepositional phrase or Adverb phrase?

[paige meredith]

I'm tad confused the use of prepositional phrase and adverb phrase.

For example: In the year Mary Anna, although she was suffering from cancer, wrote a book of poetry.

What should the type of phrase 'In the year' be? It looks like a prepositional phrase since there is 'in' in that phrase, but it functions like an adverb as it modifies the actions of writing the book.

Any idea? My idea could be wrong, sorry if it confused you.

 

[MikeNewYork]

A prepositional phrase is a structure. Its function can be adverbial.

 

[TheParser]

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

Hello, Ms. Meredith:

I was just wondering: Did you copy that sentence correctly?

If we remove "although she was suffering from cancer," we get:

"In the year Mary Anna wrote a book of poetry." That does not seem to be a correct sentence.

Do you mean something like "In that year, Mary Anna wrote a book of poetry" or maybe "In the year 2013, Mary Ann wrote a book of poetry"?

In any case, I believe that, for example, "In that year" would be labeled by many secondary school teachers as a prepositional phrase. As you said, many teachers would probably say that it is being used in an adverbial sense to modify the verb "wrote."

(On the other hand, I believe that some grammarians would even say that "in that year" is being used in an adverbial sense to modify the whole sentence. They point out that "in that year" is mobile. That is to say, it can change position: "Mary Anna, in that year, wrote a book of poetry": "Mary Anna wrote a book of poetry in that year.")

 

[MikeNewYork]

The sentence would be better with a comma after "year". If that were there, the sentence would have virtually the same meaning as your sentence with "in that year".

 

[emsr2d2]

I'm a tad confused about the use of prepositional phrases and adverb phrases.

See above.