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We class words like "he", "she" and "they" as pronouns.

Is there a category of words that "yesterday", "today" and "tomorrow" fall into?

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    The 2002 reference grammar by Huddleston and Pullum et al., The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, would consider words like yesterday, today, tonight, and tomorrow as pronouns (specifically, deictic temporal pronouns). Related info is in CGEL pages 429, 564-5. – F.E. Nov 20 '14 at 7:39
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    @F.E. That sounds like an answer to my question, if you fancy submitting it. – ChrisGuest Nov 21 '14 at 4:12
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It depends on the usage. "Yesterday," "today," and "tomorrow" can either be nouns or adverbs. In "Today is a good day." Then "today" is a noun. But if you say, "I'll see you tomorrow," then it's an adverb, since "tomorrow" is modifying the verb, "see." If it's an adverb, it's sometimes called an adverb of time, along with other words like "later," "now," "next year," or "last week."

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  • Is there a class of nouns or adverbs that they belong to? Should I be calling them "temporal nouns" / "temporal adverbs" or is there another term for these words. – ChrisGuest Nov 20 '14 at 5:02
  • @ChrisGuest If you need a subclass then temporal would be fine. – curiousdannii Nov 20 '14 at 7:10
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    Tomorrow could still be a noun in "I'll see you tomorrow," think of it. – Kris Nov 20 '14 at 7:27
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    Why is "tomorrow" an adverb in "I'll see you tomorrow"? Every day is clearly a noun phrase. Yet it occurs in phrases such as "I'll see you every day". – Araucaria - Not here any more. Nov 20 '14 at 15:42

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