English Grammar Questions
Q10: Using "June 20, 2004"
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B - California, USA " ... I am instructor at ... College. A student asked me a question the other day, and I do not know the answer; perhaps, you do. What part of speech is "20" in the date, June 20, 2004? It modifies June, therefore is it an adjective? It represents a day, so is it a noun? Or do we simply name it a number, numeral, determiner, etc.?" Despite its apparent simplicity, this question, and its answer, may be interesting to very many readers. Now, English grammar works with the following types of grammatical structures: a. expressions b. phrases c. sentences d. complex sentences Expressions are very short phrases used to replace one sentence element. Phrases are also used to replace one sentence/syntactic element, though, they can be fairly long/complex. Note that a phrase must not contain a predicative verb; if it does, that phrase becomes a sentence. Sentences are the basic, logic grammatical structures, and they are analyzed using morphology and syntax. Morphology deals, in principal, with the right form of the sentence elements (or parts of speech). Syntax studies the words grouped in syntactic elements, based on relational/interdependent functionality. Complex sentence is studied using two grammatical instruments: 1. analogy to morphology 2. analogy to sentence syntax English grammar is a logic science built on hundreds of rules, thousands of exceptions to the rules, and on few specific grammatical mechanisms. Again, if you want to understand English grammar, the best book is Logically Structured English Grammar. Now, the expression, "June 20, 2004", is an adverb of definite or indefinite time, depending on how we intend to use it within the sentence structure. I met with Jane on June 20, 2004, at 1:45 PM sharp. In example above "I" is the subject; "met" is the predicate; "with Jane" is prepositional object; "on June 20, 2004" is adverb of indefinite time; the expression, "at 1:45 PM sharp" works as adverb of definite time. I met with Jane in the morning, on June 20, 2004. In example above, "in the morning" is adverb of indefinite time; "on June 20, 2004" becomes adverb of definite time. When we use an expression, or a phrase, in place of one sentence element (or part of speech), the component words in that expression, or phrase, lose their particular meanings and any (possible) grammatical functionality. "June 20, 2004" is just one adverb of time, and the words "June", "20", and "2004" mean absolutely nothing when they are taken individually. Note the following: 1. Within a sentence, "June 20, 2004" is an equivalent adverb of time. 2. Taken alone, just as it is, the expression "June 20, 2004" is a conventional form used to express a date, and it has no grammatical functionality--except for being a particular date. The same grammatical evaluation is valid for dates expressed as, "06/20/2004". 3. Finally, the component words in expression "June 20, 2004", in either instance above, are never analyzed for morphological or syntactical functionality because they do not have any. All words in expression "June 20, 2004" work together towards building the idea/meaning: a particular moment in time. Further, we can use the idea/meaning either as an adverb of time in a sentence, or as just a date. We recommend LSEG to all readers who want to become familiar with grammatical constructions of type "equivalent sentence element". | |||||||||||||||||||||
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