Is "before" also an adjective? [duplicate]

Question

I searched "define before" in Google and found out "before" is not listed as an adjective in most dictionaries.

• Google's built-in dictionary, which is one of the Oxford dictionaries, classifies "before" as adverb/conjunction/preposition (https://www.google.com/search?q=define+before).

• Cambridge dictionary - adverb/conjunction/preposition (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/before)

• dictionary.com (Random House) - adverb/conjunction/preposition (https://www.dictionary.com/browse/before)

• Longman - adverb/conjunction/preposition (https://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/before)

• Collins Cobuild dictionary is the same as others, but Collins English dictionary also has an adjective entry (https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/before).

• Merriam Webster's also sees "before" as an adjective. (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/before)

Only Collins English dictionary (not the Cobuild version) and Merriam Webster's dictionary classifies "before" as also an adjective. Other dictionaries I checked online doesn't.

I'm not a native speaker, but the dictionaries' analysis was contrary to my understanding of the word, so I searched for sentences that seem to use "before" as an adjective. Below are the relevant phrases from (https://www.english-corpora.org/coca/).

• the pain inspired by the debates from the night before
• bringing out trash to the curb in the morning instead of the night before
• to be faster than the day before
• clears the air from the day before
• too intoxicated to remember the immediate moments before
• could not go back to a time before

Am I mis-perceiving the use of "before" in those sentences as an adjective, or is such use so uncommon that most dictionaries decided not to list it as an adjective?

Answer 1

It's a preposition. Here's why:

"Before" uncontroversially occurs as a preposition when it has an NP as complement, and there's no basis for assigning it to different categories according as it takes an NP or a clause -- or no complement at all. Traditional grammar has:

before the meeting: ................. preposition + noun phrase

before we arrived:................... subordinating conjunction + sub clause

(I hadn't seen her) before ....... adverb, no complement

This is just a matter of varying complementation, which is commonplace. Compare verbs:

I know her father.....................verb + NP

I know that he's ill.................. verb + clause

I know .................................... verb without complement

No one would want to claim that "know" is anything other than a verb in all three constructions, so why would we want to say that "before" is not a preposition in all three of the above constructions.

Moreover, in all three constructions, "before" takes the same modifiers, e.g. "a short while".

For the record, Jespersen argued for treating "before" the same in all three constructions nearly a hundred years ago.