Talk:clear

Adverb

Might want to add the adverb sense too, cf.: en:clear#Adverb. Tempodivalse [talk] 19:33, 9 July 2011 (UTC)

I'm thinking about it. Not entirely convinced it's an adverb.--Brett (talk) 02:13, 10 July 2011 (UTC)

Preposition

Now that I've slept on it, I can see that there's a clear adverb which modifies prepositions, similar to just, or right. But there's another word, I think, that is a preposition, not an adverb, and not an adjective.

• Soon we were clear of the town. (complement of be: evidence for adjective or preposition analysis)
• *Soon we became clear of the town. (cannot be complement of become: evidence against adjective)
• *Soon we were more clear of the town. (can't be modified by more: evidence against adjective and adverb)
• We stayed clear of the town. (cannot be complement of stay: evidence against adjective)
• Just clear of the town I find men at work in an excavation in the sand. (modification by just: evidence for preposition)
• There was a boat just clear of the easternmost island. (The clear is not the predicate of the subject of the sentence there: evidence against adjective)
• A two hour walk would put them well clear of the town. (locative complement of put: evidence for preposition)

On balance, then this seems to be most like a preposition.--Brett (talk) 14:38, 10 July 2011 (UTC)