when a noun was not a noun
By the time most of us have finished elementary school and high school, we have the notion that the parts of speech are immutable components of the language. But the truth is that the parts of speech are categories erected by grammarians for their convenient use in analyzing a language. The set used for teaching English grammar in schools-Roberts 1954 lists noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection-is actually the culmination of a long tradition going back at least to Dionysius Thrax (1st century BC), an Alexandrian grammarian.
(long descriptions of the evolution of the accepted parts of speech, from three, to four to eight parts)
The parts of speech then, are categories that grammarians over a considerable period of time have developed to help them in their analysis and description of a language. Since the 18th century, however, they have been commonly viewed as something rather more definite and fixed. If a more enlightened view of the subject had obtained all along, this book would be considerably thinner than it is. Many problems of usage result from grammarians trying to cram unruly English words into absolute Latin categories.
The famous eight parts of speech are simply holdovers from Latin used for convenience-few grammarians want to be faced with the task of devising an adequate set of descriptors for English. And for English, the parts of speech are not categories of words, but of functions. Many of our English words-out, fan, hit, back, like, for instance-can function as more than one part of speech. In Latin a word functions as only one part of speech. ... If you remember that, in English, words function as parts of speech but are not themselves parts of speech, you will not be misled by people who insist that like is not a conjunction or that nouns cannot be used as verbs.
--Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage: Parts of Speech
(long descriptions of the evolution of the accepted parts of speech, from three, to four to eight parts)
The parts of speech then, are categories that grammarians over a considerable period of time have developed to help them in their analysis and description of a language. Since the 18th century, however, they have been commonly viewed as something rather more definite and fixed. If a more enlightened view of the subject had obtained all along, this book would be considerably thinner than it is. Many problems of usage result from grammarians trying to cram unruly English words into absolute Latin categories.
The famous eight parts of speech are simply holdovers from Latin used for convenience-few grammarians want to be faced with the task of devising an adequate set of descriptors for English. And for English, the parts of speech are not categories of words, but of functions. Many of our English words-out, fan, hit, back, like, for instance-can function as more than one part of speech. In Latin a word functions as only one part of speech. ... If you remember that, in English, words function as parts of speech but are not themselves parts of speech, you will not be misled by people who insist that like is not a conjunction or that nouns cannot be used as verbs.
--Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage: Parts of Speech