What part of speech is “back” in “If you want it back”?

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If you want it back ...




I'm doing a school project and need to figure out parts of speech in my letter that I wrote, but, I dont know what "back" is, can anyone help?






prepositions adverbs parts-of-speech grammatical-structure







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  • 1




    I would say it is a noun of condition, equivalent to "I want it returned/improved/cooked/raw/scrambled etc"
    – WS2
    5 hours ago










  • @WSJ None of your examples are nouns, they are adjectives.
    – Mark Beadles
    44 mins ago
















up vote
2
down vote

favorite
3













If you want it back ...




I'm doing a school project and need to figure out parts of speech in my letter that I wrote, but, I dont know what "back" is, can anyone help?






prepositions adverbs parts-of-speech grammatical-structure







share|improve this question









New contributor




CJ Gross is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.















  • 1




    I would say it is a noun of condition, equivalent to "I want it returned/improved/cooked/raw/scrambled etc"
    – WS2
    5 hours ago










  • @WSJ None of your examples are nouns, they are adjectives.
    – Mark Beadles
    44 mins ago












up vote
2
down vote

favorite
3









up vote
2
down vote

favorite
3






3






If you want it back ...




I'm doing a school project and need to figure out parts of speech in my letter that I wrote, but, I dont know what "back" is, can anyone help?






prepositions adverbs parts-of-speech grammatical-structure







share|improve this question









New contributor




CJ Gross is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.












If you want it back ...




I'm doing a school project and need to figure out parts of speech in my letter that I wrote, but, I dont know what "back" is, can anyone help?






prepositions adverbs parts-of-speech grammatical-structure




prepositions adverbs parts-of-speech grammatical-structure






share|improve this question









New contributor




CJ Gross is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.











share|improve this question









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Check out our Code of Conduct.









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edited 2 hours ago









Araucaria

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  • 1




    I would say it is a noun of condition, equivalent to "I want it returned/improved/cooked/raw/scrambled etc"
    – WS2
    5 hours ago










  • @WSJ None of your examples are nouns, they are adjectives.
    – Mark Beadles
    44 mins ago












  • 1




    I would say it is a noun of condition, equivalent to "I want it returned/improved/cooked/raw/scrambled etc"
    – WS2
    5 hours ago










  • @WSJ None of your examples are nouns, they are adjectives.
    – Mark Beadles
    44 mins ago







1




1




I would say it is a noun of condition, equivalent to "I want it returned/improved/cooked/raw/scrambled etc"
– WS2
5 hours ago




I would say it is a noun of condition, equivalent to "I want it returned/improved/cooked/raw/scrambled etc"
– WS2
5 hours ago












@WSJ None of your examples are nouns, they are adjectives.
– Mark Beadles
44 mins ago




@WSJ None of your examples are nouns, they are adjectives.
– Mark Beadles
44 mins ago










1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes

















up vote
4
down vote













This is a good question. Traditional nineteenth century grammarians and most twentieth century ones classified it as an adverb. The reason is that it did not fit their definitions of nouns, verbs, adjectives or prepositions.



However, many twentieth century grammarians since the 1920's, realised that back and similar words have none of the properties of adverbs and nealy all the properties of traditional prepositions. They recognised that the traditional word class preposition was badly concieved and needed to be rethought, because these types of word, like back, away, out and so forth were clearly the same types of words as in, on and at. They also recognised that the name for this category of word, preposition, is a bad one. However, they thought it would be too difficult to change.



Most serious twenty-first century grammarians and syntacticians now reognise words like back and away to be intransitive prepositions. They are described as intransitive because they take no 'object'.



These are the ways that words like back are not like adverbs:




  1. Adverbs cannot be used as predicative complements of the verb BE:



    • *The guards are locally. (ungrammatical)

    • The guards are back.



  2. In standard Englishes, adverbs cannot usually be modified by the specialised adverbs straight and right



    • *The guards returned right recently. (ungrammatical)

    • *The guards returned straight recently. (ungrammatical)

    • The guards ran straight back.

    • The guards ran right back.



  3. Most adverbs can be modified by the adverb very.



    • very recently

    • *very back. (ungrammatical)



  4. It is extrmely rare for adverb phrases to be able to modify nouns, but back-phrases can:



    • *the very beautifully people (ungrammatical)

    • *the people very beautifully (ungrammatical)

    • the people back home



  5. Adverbs cannot be used as locative complements of verbs such as put:



    • *Put the pen locally. (ungrammatical)

    • Put the pen back.


Now see that regular prepositions, that take noun phrase complements, pattern just like back:




  1. Complements of BE:



    • The guards are back.

    • The guards are in town.



  2. Modification by straight and right:



    • The guards ran straight back.

    • The guards ran right back

    • The guards ran straight through the building.

    • The guards ran right through the building.



  3. modification by *very:



    • *very back (ungrammatical)

    • *very through the tunnel (ungrammatical)



  4. noun modification:



    • people back home

    • people in France



  5. Locative complements:



    • put the pen back

    • put the pen on the table


Conclusion



Traditional twentieth century grammars (and hence most dictionaries, which are wildly out of date) regard back as an adverb. Modern academic grammars classify back as a preposition. Unless the Original Poster has a lot of time to explain why back is a preposition, they might be better off describing it as an adverb in their project.



Alternatively, they could cite a modern academic reference grammar such as:




  • Oxford Modern English Grammar by Bas Aarts, 2011.


  • A Student's Introduction to English Grammar by Huddleston & Pullum, 2005.





share|improve this answer


















  • 1




    OED still has back as an adverb, but it hasn't been updated since 1885. However, it also says "aphetic for aback" which is definitely an adverb. It's not clear what they intend aphetic to mean.
    – Andrew Leach♦
    2 hours ago










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1 Answer
1






active

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1 Answer
1






active

oldest

votes









active

oldest

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active

oldest

votes








up vote
4
down vote













This is a good question. Traditional nineteenth century grammarians and most twentieth century ones classified it as an adverb. The reason is that it did not fit their definitions of nouns, verbs, adjectives or prepositions.



However, many twentieth century grammarians since the 1920's, realised that back and similar words have none of the properties of adverbs and nealy all the properties of traditional prepositions. They recognised that the traditional word class preposition was badly concieved and needed to be rethought, because these types of word, like back, away, out and so forth were clearly the same types of words as in, on and at. They also recognised that the name for this category of word, preposition, is a bad one. However, they thought it would be too difficult to change.



Most serious twenty-first century grammarians and syntacticians now reognise words like back and away to be intransitive prepositions. They are described as intransitive because they take no 'object'.



These are the ways that words like back are not like adverbs:




  1. Adverbs cannot be used as predicative complements of the verb BE:



    • *The guards are locally. (ungrammatical)

    • The guards are back.



  2. In standard Englishes, adverbs cannot usually be modified by the specialised adverbs straight and right



    • *The guards returned right recently. (ungrammatical)

    • *The guards returned straight recently. (ungrammatical)

    • The guards ran straight back.

    • The guards ran right back.



  3. Most adverbs can be modified by the adverb very.



    • very recently

    • *very back. (ungrammatical)



  4. It is extrmely rare for adverb phrases to be able to modify nouns, but back-phrases can:



    • *the very beautifully people (ungrammatical)

    • *the people very beautifully (ungrammatical)

    • the people back home



  5. Adverbs cannot be used as locative complements of verbs such as put:



    • *Put the pen locally. (ungrammatical)

    • Put the pen back.


Now see that regular prepositions, that take noun phrase complements, pattern just like back:




  1. Complements of BE:



    • The guards are back.

    • The guards are in town.



  2. Modification by straight and right:



    • The guards ran straight back.

    • The guards ran right back

    • The guards ran straight through the building.

    • The guards ran right through the building.



  3. modification by *very:



    • *very back (ungrammatical)

    • *very through the tunnel (ungrammatical)



  4. noun modification:



    • people back home

    • people in France



  5. Locative complements:



    • put the pen back

    • put the pen on the table


Conclusion



Traditional twentieth century grammars (and hence most dictionaries, which are wildly out of date) regard back as an adverb. Modern academic grammars classify back as a preposition. Unless the Original Poster has a lot of time to explain why back is a preposition, they might be better off describing it as an adverb in their project.



Alternatively, they could cite a modern academic reference grammar such as:




  • Oxford Modern English Grammar by Bas Aarts, 2011.


  • A Student's Introduction to English Grammar by Huddleston & Pullum, 2005.





share|improve this answer


















  • 1




    OED still has back as an adverb, but it hasn't been updated since 1885. However, it also says "aphetic for aback" which is definitely an adverb. It's not clear what they intend aphetic to mean.
    – Andrew Leach♦
    2 hours ago














up vote
4
down vote













This is a good question. Traditional nineteenth century grammarians and most twentieth century ones classified it as an adverb. The reason is that it did not fit their definitions of nouns, verbs, adjectives or prepositions.



However, many twentieth century grammarians since the 1920's, realised that back and similar words have none of the properties of adverbs and nealy all the properties of traditional prepositions. They recognised that the traditional word class preposition was badly concieved and needed to be rethought, because these types of word, like back, away, out and so forth were clearly the same types of words as in, on and at. They also recognised that the name for this category of word, preposition, is a bad one. However, they thought it would be too difficult to change.



Most serious twenty-first century grammarians and syntacticians now reognise words like back and away to be intransitive prepositions. They are described as intransitive because they take no 'object'.



These are the ways that words like back are not like adverbs:




  1. Adverbs cannot be used as predicative complements of the verb BE:



    • *The guards are locally. (ungrammatical)

    • The guards are back.



  2. In standard Englishes, adverbs cannot usually be modified by the specialised adverbs straight and right



    • *The guards returned right recently. (ungrammatical)

    • *The guards returned straight recently. (ungrammatical)

    • The guards ran straight back.

    • The guards ran right back.



  3. Most adverbs can be modified by the adverb very.



    • very recently

    • *very back. (ungrammatical)



  4. It is extrmely rare for adverb phrases to be able to modify nouns, but back-phrases can:



    • *the very beautifully people (ungrammatical)

    • *the people very beautifully (ungrammatical)

    • the people back home



  5. Adverbs cannot be used as locative complements of verbs such as put:



    • *Put the pen locally. (ungrammatical)

    • Put the pen back.


Now see that regular prepositions, that take noun phrase complements, pattern just like back:




  1. Complements of BE:



    • The guards are back.

    • The guards are in town.



  2. Modification by straight and right:



    • The guards ran straight back.

    • The guards ran right back

    • The guards ran straight through the building.

    • The guards ran right through the building.



  3. modification by *very:



    • *very back (ungrammatical)

    • *very through the tunnel (ungrammatical)



  4. noun modification:



    • people back home

    • people in France



  5. Locative complements:



    • put the pen back

    • put the pen on the table


Conclusion



Traditional twentieth century grammars (and hence most dictionaries, which are wildly out of date) regard back as an adverb. Modern academic grammars classify back as a preposition. Unless the Original Poster has a lot of time to explain why back is a preposition, they might be better off describing it as an adverb in their project.



Alternatively, they could cite a modern academic reference grammar such as:




  • Oxford Modern English Grammar by Bas Aarts, 2011.


  • A Student's Introduction to English Grammar by Huddleston & Pullum, 2005.





share|improve this answer


















  • 1




    OED still has back as an adverb, but it hasn't been updated since 1885. However, it also says "aphetic for aback" which is definitely an adverb. It's not clear what they intend aphetic to mean.
    – Andrew Leach♦
    2 hours ago












up vote
4
down vote










up vote
4
down vote









This is a good question. Traditional nineteenth century grammarians and most twentieth century ones classified it as an adverb. The reason is that it did not fit their definitions of nouns, verbs, adjectives or prepositions.



However, many twentieth century grammarians since the 1920's, realised that back and similar words have none of the properties of adverbs and nealy all the properties of traditional prepositions. They recognised that the traditional word class preposition was badly concieved and needed to be rethought, because these types of word, like back, away, out and so forth were clearly the same types of words as in, on and at. They also recognised that the name for this category of word, preposition, is a bad one. However, they thought it would be too difficult to change.



Most serious twenty-first century grammarians and syntacticians now reognise words like back and away to be intransitive prepositions. They are described as intransitive because they take no 'object'.



These are the ways that words like back are not like adverbs:




  1. Adverbs cannot be used as predicative complements of the verb BE:



    • *The guards are locally. (ungrammatical)

    • The guards are back.



  2. In standard Englishes, adverbs cannot usually be modified by the specialised adverbs straight and right



    • *The guards returned right recently. (ungrammatical)

    • *The guards returned straight recently. (ungrammatical)

    • The guards ran straight back.

    • The guards ran right back.



  3. Most adverbs can be modified by the adverb very.



    • very recently

    • *very back. (ungrammatical)



  4. It is extrmely rare for adverb phrases to be able to modify nouns, but back-phrases can:



    • *the very beautifully people (ungrammatical)

    • *the people very beautifully (ungrammatical)

    • the people back home



  5. Adverbs cannot be used as locative complements of verbs such as put:



    • *Put the pen locally. (ungrammatical)

    • Put the pen back.


Now see that regular prepositions, that take noun phrase complements, pattern just like back:




  1. Complements of BE:



    • The guards are back.

    • The guards are in town.



  2. Modification by straight and right:



    • The guards ran straight back.

    • The guards ran right back

    • The guards ran straight through the building.

    • The guards ran right through the building.



  3. modification by *very:



    • *very back (ungrammatical)

    • *very through the tunnel (ungrammatical)



  4. noun modification:



    • people back home

    • people in France



  5. Locative complements:



    • put the pen back

    • put the pen on the table


Conclusion



Traditional twentieth century grammars (and hence most dictionaries, which are wildly out of date) regard back as an adverb. Modern academic grammars classify back as a preposition. Unless the Original Poster has a lot of time to explain why back is a preposition, they might be better off describing it as an adverb in their project.



Alternatively, they could cite a modern academic reference grammar such as:




  • Oxford Modern English Grammar by Bas Aarts, 2011.


  • A Student's Introduction to English Grammar by Huddleston & Pullum, 2005.





share|improve this answer














This is a good question. Traditional nineteenth century grammarians and most twentieth century ones classified it as an adverb. The reason is that it did not fit their definitions of nouns, verbs, adjectives or prepositions.



However, many twentieth century grammarians since the 1920's, realised that back and similar words have none of the properties of adverbs and nealy all the properties of traditional prepositions. They recognised that the traditional word class preposition was badly concieved and needed to be rethought, because these types of word, like back, away, out and so forth were clearly the same types of words as in, on and at. They also recognised that the name for this category of word, preposition, is a bad one. However, they thought it would be too difficult to change.



Most serious twenty-first century grammarians and syntacticians now reognise words like back and away to be intransitive prepositions. They are described as intransitive because they take no 'object'.



These are the ways that words like back are not like adverbs:




  1. Adverbs cannot be used as predicative complements of the verb BE:



    • *The guards are locally. (ungrammatical)

    • The guards are back.



  2. In standard Englishes, adverbs cannot usually be modified by the specialised adverbs straight and right



    • *The guards returned right recently. (ungrammatical)

    • *The guards returned straight recently. (ungrammatical)

    • The guards ran straight back.

    • The guards ran right back.



  3. Most adverbs can be modified by the adverb very.



    • very recently

    • *very back. (ungrammatical)



  4. It is extrmely rare for adverb phrases to be able to modify nouns, but back-phrases can:



    • *the very beautifully people (ungrammatical)

    • *the people very beautifully (ungrammatical)

    • the people back home



  5. Adverbs cannot be used as locative complements of verbs such as put:



    • *Put the pen locally. (ungrammatical)

    • Put the pen back.


Now see that regular prepositions, that take noun phrase complements, pattern just like back:




  1. Complements of BE:



    • The guards are back.

    • The guards are in town.



  2. Modification by straight and right:



    • The guards ran straight back.

    • The guards ran right back

    • The guards ran straight through the building.

    • The guards ran right through the building.



  3. modification by *very:



    • *very back (ungrammatical)

    • *very through the tunnel (ungrammatical)



  4. noun modification:



    • people back home

    • people in France



  5. Locative complements:



    • put the pen back

    • put the pen on the table


Conclusion



Traditional twentieth century grammars (and hence most dictionaries, which are wildly out of date) regard back as an adverb. Modern academic grammars classify back as a preposition. Unless the Original Poster has a lot of time to explain why back is a preposition, they might be better off describing it as an adverb in their project.



Alternatively, they could cite a modern academic reference grammar such as:




  • Oxford Modern English Grammar by Bas Aarts, 2011.


  • A Student's Introduction to English Grammar by Huddleston & Pullum, 2005.






share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited 4 mins ago

























answered 2 hours ago









Araucaria

34.2k963137




34.2k963137







  • 1




    OED still has back as an adverb, but it hasn't been updated since 1885. However, it also says "aphetic for aback" which is definitely an adverb. It's not clear what they intend aphetic to mean.
    – Andrew Leach♦
    2 hours ago












  • 1




    OED still has back as an adverb, but it hasn't been updated since 1885. However, it also says "aphetic for aback" which is definitely an adverb. It's not clear what they intend aphetic to mean.
    – Andrew Leach♦
    2 hours ago







1




1




OED still has back as an adverb, but it hasn't been updated since 1885. However, it also says "aphetic for aback" which is definitely an adverb. It's not clear what they intend aphetic to mean.
– Andrew Leach♦
2 hours ago




OED still has back as an adverb, but it hasn't been updated since 1885. However, it also says "aphetic for aback" which is definitely an adverb. It's not clear what they intend aphetic to mean.
– Andrew Leach♦
2 hours ago










CJ Gross is a new contributor. Be nice, and check out our Code of Conduct.









 

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