On my way home (part of speech)

[Nonverbis]

I met Caroline on my way home.

Could you clarify what part of speach "home" is?

It is as if related to "way". In this case it seems to be an adjective.
But judjing by analogy with "go home", it may be an adverb.

 

[Rover_KE]

It's an adverb in that context.

 

[Nonverbis]

An adverb modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb. But here for me it modifies a noun.
Could you help me understand why it is an adverb?

 

[5jj]

Think of the meaning of the sentence as I met Caroline (while I was) on my way [= going] (to my) home.

Does that help?

 

[Nonverbis]

If we consider "I met Caroline while I was on my way going to my home", then home is a noun here. If a we add something for clarification, then omission of it should not change the part of speach.

Secondly. Isn't it too farfetched?

Maybe it is just a set phrase? Then we just shouldn't twist our brains. But! Set phrases are listed in dictionaries. As this case is not listed, then it is not a set phrase.

 

[GoesStation]

If we consider "I met Caroline while I was on my way going to my home", then "home" is a noun here.

The sentence is ungrammatical and not meaningful, so I'm afraid we can't analyze it.

 

[PaulMatthews]

I met Caroline on my way home.

Could you clarify what part of [STRIKE]speach[/STRIKE] speech "home" is? It is as if related to "way". In this case it seems to be an adjective.
But [STRIKE]judjing[/STRIKE] judging by an analogy with "go home", it may be an adverb.

Traditional grammar classifies this "home" as an adverb, but modern grammar puts it in the preposition category, where the meaning can be paraphrased as "on my way to my place of residence".

 

[Nonverbis]

I can't understand you. I'm on the traditional side. But I consulted all the dictionaries I managed to remember. They seem all to be traditional. None of them mentioned home as a preposition.

 

[5jj]

If we consider "I met Caroline while I was on my way going to my home", then home is a noun here.

I think you misunderstood my earlier post.

When I suggested thinking of your original sentence as I met Caroline (while I was) on my way [= going] (to my) home, I meant that you could understand 'while I was on my way' as 'while I was going' and 'home' as 'to my home'.

Consider these four sentences:

1. I was going to my home.
2. I was on my way to my home.
3. I was going home.
4. I was on my way home.

In [1], the underlined words are a preposition phrase functioning adverbially. They tell us where I am going. If you want to use the word modify, then the phrase is modifying 'am going'.
In [2], the underlined words are also a preposition phrase functioning adverbially They tell us where I am on my way to. If you want to use the word modify, then the phrase is modifying 'am in my way', not just 'way'.
In [3] and [4], the underlined single words have exactly the same function as the PPs in [1] and [2]. As they function adverbially, and contain no preposition, I think they are adverbs. Paul's school of grammar considers them prepositions. I wouldn't lose any sleep over this if I were you.

 

[probus]

A footnote that I think is interesting:

Home is such an important word and concept in English that we native speakers tend not to realize that some other languages don't have it. French, for example, makes do with circumlocutions such as a la maison and chez soi.

 

[canadalynx]

I am not a teacher.

A footnote that I think is interesting:

Home is such an important word and concept in English that we native speakers tend not to realize that some other languages don't have it. French, for example, makes do with circumlocutions such as à la maison and chez soi.

There is a word in Chinese to express the same idea. :-D

 

[probus]

Thank you, canadalynx, for including in the quote box the French accent that I had been too lazy to hunt up.

 

[Phaedrus]

I can't understand you. I'm on the traditional side. But I consulted all the dictionaries I managed to remember. They seem all to be traditional. None of them mentioned home as a preposition.

One noteworthy thing that the analysis of home as a preposition has going for it in sentences like I went home is that home in that usage can—like most, if not all prepositions, but unlike adverbs—be modified by right: I went right home, I drove right around corner, I walked right across the street, *[strike]He smoked right quickly[/strike], *[strike]He slept right peacefully[/strike], *[strike]They danced right gracefully[/strike].

Instead, home behaves in such usage like other words (including downstairs, upstairs, downtown, upstream, there) that have been classified as (intransitive, objectless) prepositions rather than adverbs in the modern grammar (CGEL, 2002) of which Paul may well be an apostle: He went right downstairs, I drove right downtown, She rowed her boat right upstream, etc.

Consider, too, that none of these words can modify adjectives or adverbs, unlike most other adverbs. Thus, if they are adverbs after all, they are handicapped adverbs at best. If all your dictionaries tell you they are adverbs in that usage, you might want to ask yourself whether grammatical analysis must answer to dictionaries, or whether dictionaries must answer to grammatical analysis. Dictionaries can be mistaken in their lexical categorization of words they define.

 

[probus]

Taking right quickly as an example, Google Ngrams indicates that the use of right as a synonym for very is enjoying a strong resurgence after reaching its lowest ebb around 1940.

 

[GoesStation]

Taking right quickly as an example, Google Ngrams indicates that the use of right as a synonym for very is enjoying a strong resurgence after reaching its lowest ebb around 1940.

That's interesting. It's right quick in my region. This is dialect which learners shouldn't use.

 

[TheParser]

It is as if related to "way". In this case it seems to be an adjective.
But judjing by analogy with "go home", it may be an adverb.

NOT A TEACHER

Nonverbis,

1. Whenever I have a question about grammar, I often go to the "Books" section of Google and type in some key words or phrases.

a. Some years back, I found a book that compared the Czech and English languages. I thought that this sentence would interest you: "Another peculiarity of English is the adjective attribute expressed by an adverb." (The authors say this can also happen in Czech.) Their examples in English (and Czech): "the way home" and "the way back." -- Mathesius and Vachek, A Functional Analysis (2013), pages 133-134.

2. The Oxford English Grammar (1996) by Sidney Greenbaum says on pages 219-220 that in "your way home," the word "home" is an adverb that postmodifies the noun "way." (It comes after the noun that it is modifying.)

3. While searching the Web, I stumbled across a long and interesting discussion on how to parse "home" in your kind of sentence. Please go to Google and type in these words: "I'm on my way home." (Home: adverb?) Apr 19 2017

 

[Phaedrus]

Another argument for analyzing home in this usage as a preposition has occurred to me, and the argument can be applied to the way construction, as well, which I inadvertently ignored in my last post. Let's call this argument the argument from grammatical parallelism.

It will be granted that two phrases are grammatically parallel when the result of coordinating them with and is grammatical, and that the result is grammatical only when the two coordinated phrases are phrases of the same type. Home in this type of usage can be coordinated with other prepositional phrases:

He walked [home and to the gym] every day.
Though [the way [home and to the gym]] was long, he walked to both places every day.

This constitutes evidence that home realizes a prepositional phrase in the syntax of such constructions. The argument from grammatical parallelism also constitutes evidence against the adverb analysis of home in such usage insofar as other adverbs do not grammatically coordinate with prepositional phrases:

*[strike]He walked [quickly and to the gym].[/strike]
*[strike]The cat lay [lazily and on the mat].[/strike]

 

[jutfrank]

*[strike]He walked [quickly and to the gym].[/strike]
*[strike]The cat lay [lazily and on the mat].[/strike]

I would think the impermissibility of these phrases lies in the fact that quickly and lazily are of a semantic kind (adverbs of manner) rather than a grammatical category. Don't you think that's where the parallelism issue lies? The phrases home and to the gym in your example both express destination, which is why we wouldn't object to them being used in parallel. If you substitute to the gym with a PP that expresses manner, the problem is resolved.

He walked quickly and in a funny way.

 

[Phaedrus]

I would think the impermissibility of these phrases lies in the fact that quickly and lazily are of a semantic kind (adverbs of manner) rather than a grammatical category. Don't you think that's where the parallelism issue lies? The phrases home and to the gym in your example both express destination, which is why we wouldn't object to them being used in parallel. If you substitute to the gym with a PP that expresses manner, the problem is resolved.

He walked quickly and in a funny way.

I agree with you that it would be best to keep the semantic category the same, lest differences in that regard be perceived to interfere with the argument from parallelism. Further, I can honestly say that your example doesn't strike me as ungrammatical.

However, let's up the ante a bit by using a series of three elements, with the phrasal type in question as the middle (second) element in the series. We shall keep the semantic category the same in each pair of examples (manner in the first case, destination in the second). Is (1a) not much worse than (2a)?

(1a) ?* He walked quickly, in a funny way, and crookedly.
(1b) He walked quickly, weirdly, and crookedly.

(2a) He walked to the gym, home, and to the jobsite.
(2b) He walked to the gym, to his home, and to the jobsite.

 

[5jj]

(1a) ?* He walked quickly, in a funny way, and crookedly.
(1b) He walked quickly, weirdly, and crookedly.

(2a) He walked to the gym, home, and to the jobsite.
(2b) He walked to the gym, to his home, and to the jobsite.

I think that when we are discussing word classes/parts of speech, or indeed any aspect of English grammar, it's probably best to start with words/phrases/sentences that have actually been produced by native speakers.