For example, in the phrase:
Yodelling is good fun.
'Yodelling' is a noun that refers to an action. Would it be correct to call this noun an action?
Can a Noun be an Action?
nounsverbs
Related Solutions
My old school grammar explains: A to-infinitive after a noun/pronoun has the function of a relative clause. Examples:
1 When I was in London I bought a map to show me the way ( meaning which could show me the way).
2 Where can I get a bus to take me to the Tower (which can take me to the tower).
3 I hope there will be a guide to show us round (who can show us round).
4 I wish we had someone to act as interpreter (who could act ...).
In colloquial language prepositions are placed after the infinitive:
5 In London children have large parks to play in.
In written language preposition + relative pronoun is preferred:
6 The City Council provides baskets in which to put litter.
You can say these to-infinitives have the function of a relative clause or you can say they correspond to a what-for indication.
It is a bit awkard to show how English may have come to this structure. Maybe from French un livre à lire ( a book to read) and ultimately from Latin constructions. It seems to me that Latin ad + gerund or noun + gerundive were rendered with à + infinitive in French and with to-infinitive in English.
If one tried to explain the English to-infinitive just by filling in other words one would have to use such an awkward formula as
a map which is able to show me the way. - Not exactly a natural way of expression.
Home is a preposition according to modern grammars such as Oxford Modern English Grammar (Aarts 2011) or The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language (Huddleston & Pullum 2002).
According to such grammars, although prepositions often—prototypically in fact—take noun phrase complements, this is not an essential feature of the word category. In the same way that verbs that don't take objects are still verbs, prepositions that don't take objects are still prepositions.
First of all, notice that home patterns like other preposition phrases in the Original Poster's example, as a complement of the noun way:
- I can find my way out of the building.
- I can find my way out.
- I can find my way through.
- I can find my way through the forest.
- I can find my way home.
In addition home can be modified by the specialised adverbs right and straight, which modify prepositions but not usually adverbs:
- Go straight home.
- Go straight past the station
- I have to go right home.
- Go right through the forest.
In addition, home cannot be modified by the adverb very which freely modifies adverbs (at least those with a gradable meaning) but not prepositions (even those which are gradable):
- *I went very home. (ungrammatical)
- *I went very past the station. (ungrammatical)
- I went very slowly.
Unlike adverbs, prepositions such as home can function as locative complements of the verb BE:
- Are you in the building?
- Are you home yet?
- *Are you locally? (ungrammatical)
Unlike adverbs , preposition phrases commonly modify nouns:
- people home alone
- the man in a hat
- *the locally shop (ungrammatical noun phrase)
- *the shop locally (ungrammatical noun phrase)
- *the beautifully woman (ungrammatical noun phrase)
- *the woman beautifully (ungrammatical noun phrase)
Thus the evidence would seem to suggest that home is a preposition and not an adverb.
Best Answer
"Yodelling" is strictly speaking ambiguous between a noun and a verb, though the verb is the more salient interpretation ("to yodel is fun").
Noun interpretation can be forced by adjectival premodification, as in occasional yodelling.