Head of a phrase

[Eddie88]

The head of a phrase classifies what type of phrase it is.

However, like prepositional phrases, which are one thing, but function as something else, other phrases can in fact be one thing and function as something else too.

DO you agree with this? I was told this was incorrect. But I have a sentence that contradicts that this statement above is false:

This is a sentence from a credible site:

The train from Montreal arrived four hours late.
The intransitive verb “arrived” takes no direct object, and the noun phrase “four hours late” acts as an adverb describing when the train arrived.


So, can a phrase function as something, even if it doesn't have this something in its phrase?

[Marius Hancu]

It has late, which is plenty adverbial.

The meaning is:

It is late, (and that) by four hours.

Lexical content is not syntactic role, still there's some passage of meaning from words to the phrases. Watch the core words in the phrase.

[Eddie88]

Hi

I'm aware that it is adverbial. I'm just saying that it is strange that this site calls it a NOUN PHRASE (which functions as an adverb).

This seems strange to me, as I see in no way that this is a noun phrase, but most defintely an adverbial.

[Marius Hancu]

That's a possible view that they have:

four hours late

head: hours
four: premodifier
late: postmodifier