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In the sentence "I hope you are all paying attention, here is a sentence I made earlier", is here an adverb or a noun? I think it is a noun, but if I substitute a noun or a pronoun for here, the sentence loses its intended meaning.

hippietrail
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RoDaSm
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    possible duplicate of What part of speech does “here” have in “I am here”? – tchrist Apr 26 '13 at 16:51
  • Or possibly What exactly is an adverb? – Andrew Leach Apr 26 '13 at 17:03
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    I have to say this is a very strange question, because unlike other people wondering about such things you're actually aware of the easy test, and have already performed it, and concluded that it can't be a noun... and now are still thinking it could be one. I have to ask: why? And what, then, was the purpose of the test in the first place if you won't accept the results you get? – RegDwigнt Apr 26 '13 at 17:47
  • Neither of these previous answers deal with the change of meaning when "here" is substituted by a noun. In the sentence "I am here," "here" can be substituted with "in the wardrobe," which could be regarded as an indirect object or a prepositional clause (I am not clear as to which it is). When "here" is acting as the subject of a sentence, e.g., in the wardrobe is a sentence I made earlier, can it still be regarded as a noun? (Maybe, – RoDaSm Apr 26 '13 at 18:00
  • I seem to have divided opinion with this question, but thanks RegDwight for confirming my opinion, but I'll be only too glad to hear other opinions. – RoDaSm Apr 26 '13 at 18:09
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    @RegDwigнt: I'm assuming this is a case where you apply the test you know but don't find the answer satisfying so you doubt your approach, doubt the test, doubt if the test was applicable, doubt if you tested properly, and then go ask the experts at English Language & Usage. Wherever the mistake was we should be able to help. Function words and adverbs can be tricky when shoehorned into the part-of-speech system. – hippietrail Dec 04 '13 at 05:12
  • I don't know how much use substitution is in this context. Here is a sentence I wrote just now ... Here is a man I met just now ... John* is a man I met just now. By that logic, obviously we can substitute a noun for here. I'd say it's because here = [this] here. I have no problem accepting this* as a pronoun generally meaning this thing here**. – FumbleFingers Jan 14 '14 at 17:43
  • I think this is a great question! :) -- This brings up the difference between function and category. Some more examples which might be somewhat similar to the OP's example: "Here is where the accident occurred." ("Is here where the accident occurred?"), "Under the table is a good place to hide" ("Is under the table a good place to hide?"), "Here is where we should put it." ("Is here where we should put it?"). -- Perhaps also consider the possibility of "here" as being an intransitive preposition. . . . – F.E. Mar 07 '14 at 18:42
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    Here is not an adverb or a noun It is a preposition. – Araucaria - Him Feb 21 '15 at 11:25
  • @Araucaria why don't you answer this question? And explain why "here" is not an adverb. – Mari-Lou A Oct 05 '15 at 11:25
  • It's a comma splice. – Jossie Calderon Oct 16 '18 at 16:32

4 Answers4

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John Lawler notes in a comment on a different answer here:

Alas, no. It's still an adverb. The construction Here/There is/are Noun Phrase allows the adverb to be fronted, with the subject Noun Phrase moved to the end, as the new information. It's said either referring to a physical place (pointing is appropriate), or metaphorically to refer to things that are being said in the conversation. Here is X generally means 'The next thing I say is X'.

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MrHen
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  • If "here" is used as location, as in "I am still here", then I do not understand by what reason it is not considered a noun. Furthermore, I do not understand what it modifies in the example above. Perhaps this is one of those weird situations in the English language where we have a made up rule that became a tradition. – user277459 Jan 21 '18 at 15:33
  • If you consider it a noun, it has to be a predicate noun following auxiliary be. And the predicate is a locative, which can take many forms, for which here and there are pro-forms. If you want to call the pro-forms prepositions, why not? It doesn't matter how one labels intermediate nodes, after all. – John Lawler Jan 30 '23 at 19:21
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according to dictionary.com, the word 'here' can be a noun as in this example "It's only a short distance from here."

random
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the sentence, "I hope you are all paying attention, here is a sentence I made earlier" is a type of run-on sentence known as a comma splice. correctly written it should read. "I hope you are all paying attention. Here is a sentence I made earlier." Rewritten correctly, "Here" becomes the subject of the second sentence and thus, a noun

looking at it a different way, an adverb is a word that modifies a verb. In either the original sentences or my rewritten version "Here" is not modifying a verb or anything else for that matter and thus is not an adverb.

user276199
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You're correct, "here" is a noun.

ffxtian
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    Alas, no. It's still an adverb. The construction Here/There is/are Noun Phrase allows the adverb to be fronted, with the subject Noun Phrase moved to the end, as the new information. It's said either referring to a physical place (pointing is appropriate), or metaphorically to refer to things that are being said in the conversation. Here is X generally means 'The next thing I say is X'. – John Lawler Apr 26 '13 at 17:37
  • Thanks, John Lawler, but your answer is a little confusing for me. – RoDaSm Apr 26 '13 at 18:23
  • Jonn Lawler is saying that Here is my car has exactly the same components as My car is here. And he debunks both the noun and adverb theories for here in either permutation in tchrist's link above. And he would probably not agree with my labelling here's word class in this usage as locative particle, as he concentrates on constructions. – Edwin Ashworth Apr 26 '13 at 18:37
  • Thanks, Edwin, but I really didn't get it as I don't know what a locative partiple is, but I'm on to it right now and hope to be familiar with the term very shortly. – RoDaSm Apr 26 '13 at 18:45
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    You probably won't find the term - the argument still rages. Most people interested in this field try to use a word-class structure to help with the analysis of English, but most don't agree on which one to use. Many would admit that classifying this usage of here as either noun or adverb is counter-intuitive and counter-productive; if anything, John is here models on John is cold, where the extra information is about John rather than the 'being' (ie existing) - and so adjectival. But moving to John came here; John is home (now), we see that the label 'adjective' is also wrong. – Edwin Ashworth Apr 26 '13 at 18:55
  • Well, in my previous question that I made earlier "Hello, Denver, Charlotte calling, here are the results of the test." (closed by english.stackexchange for not being a permissable question): Wot you think? – RoDaSm Apr 26 '13 at 19:15
  • Read before posting to see whether it's fair to expect others to understand exactly what you're asking. The analyses of your examples look very similar, if that's what you're after (or even if it's not). – Edwin Ashworth Apr 26 '13 at 19:46
  • The only case where I can think of that "here" is a noun is in the set phrase "the here and now," and that's a different case from the question. –  Apr 26 '13 at 20:39
  • @gmcgath: They left here yesterday arguably uses 'here' as a noun. – Edwin Ashworth Apr 27 '13 at 18:51
  • @EdwinAshworth Well, if here is not a noun in your example, then school is not a noun in I left school at 16 or work in I left work at 3 o’oclock. – tchrist Apr 29 '13 at 15:16