[Grammar] Is a date a noun, adjective, or adverb?

[ladle24]

Is a date a noun, adjective, or adverb?

If a date is used in an adverbial prepositional phrase, does that make what might (not sure) otherwise be a noun or adjective into an adverb?

Here are my examples:
In 800 A.D., during the medieval period, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor of Europe.

After the church split into Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox, William the Conqueror defeated King Harold of England in 1066, and started feudalism.

"in 1066" and "In 800 A.D." are clearly adverbial prepositional phrases, but there are two different things going on here. Is 1066 a noun used in an adverbial prepositional phrase, or is it an adverb (since it is a time word) used in an adverbial prepositional phrase? (A third possibility would be an adjective as the object of the preposition?)

Then we have in 800 A.D. Within the adverbial prepositional phrase, 800 modifies the noun (or Latin noun phrase to be exact) A.D. The possibilities seem to be that 800 is an adverb modifying A.D. (this does not seem likely to me), that 800 is an adjective because it modifies A.D. (a noun that has become an adjective?), or that it is a noun modifying another noun (which happens in some languages, but not English, right?). The most likely is an adjective. Is that it's native form, or is it a noun turned adjective? If it IS indeed an adjective, what does that mean for 1066 above? Is that also an adjective? Can an adjective be the object of a preposition? I think so. (E.g. I saw the lady in red. But maybe red is an adjective used subtantivally, so maybe that example doesn't count.)

Can we answer the question by rewriting the phrase: "in the year 1066" and "in the year 800 A.D."? In those cases, it points more clearly in direction of adjective, although in the second case, that makes the phrase redundant with itself.

Thanks,
Elizabeth

 

[Raymott]

Is a date a noun, adjective, or adverb?

If a date is used in an adverbial prepositional phrase, does that make what might (not sure) otherwise be a noun or adjective into an adverb?

Here are my examples:
In 800 A.D., during the medieval period, Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne Holy Roman Emperor of Europe.

After the church split into Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox, William the Conqueror defeated King Harold of England in 1066, and started feudalism.

"in 1066" and "In 800 A.D." are clearly adverbial prepositional phrases, but there are two different things going on here. Is 1066 a noun used in an adverbial prepositional phrase,
Yes. 800, 1066 are the names of the year.

or is it an adverb (since it is a time word) used in an adverbial prepositional phrase?
No
(A third possibility would be an adjective as the object of the preposition?)
No
Then we have in 800 A.D. Within the adverbial prepositional phrase, 800 modifies the noun (or Latin noun phrase to be exact) A.D.
No, as I see it, A.D. qualifies 800. Which year 800 do you mean - AD or BC? You mean the anno domini 800.
(When I went to school, adverbs modified verbs, and adjectives qualified nouns. This distinction seems to have been lost.)

The possibilities seem to be that 800 is an adverb modifying A.D. (this does not seem likely to me), that 800 is an adjective because it modifies A.D. (a noun that has become an adjective?), or that it is a noun modifying another noun (which happens in some languages, but not English, right?).
No. Nouns can qualify other nouns if they're used adjectivally - a school picnic, a television show, etc.

The most likely is an adjective. Is that it's native form, or is it a noun turned adjective? If it IS indeed an adjective, what does that mean for 1066 above? Is that also an adjective? Can an adjective be the object of a preposition? I think so. (E.g. I saw the lady in red. But maybe red is an adjective used subtantivally, so maybe that example doesn't count.)
I think that's right. It counts as a noun. Just as 'poor' does, as in "We give to the poor".

Can we answer the question by rewriting the phrase: "in the year 1066" and "in the year 800 A.D."? In those cases, it points more clearly in direction of adjective, although in the second case, that makes the phrase redundant with itself.
"I visited my cousin Mary." The last two words are nouns.

Thanks,
Elizabeth

R.

 

[ladle24]

Thank you. My brain has been addled by learning languages that use case systems, or biblical Hebrew where nouns modify nouns and so on.

Elizabeth