Most dictionaries seem to describe 'there' as an adverb. Oxford online dictionary definition Is this true?
"Last year we went to Paris. We stayed there for three nights."
In sentences like this 'there' is taking the place of a preposition and a noun – in this case 'in Paris'. So why is it referred to as an adverb?
Is there a case for describing it as a preposition? It is a substitute for a prepositional phrase ('on the table'. 'in the room', 'to Paris', 'in Paris' etc), and like a preposition, and unlike an adverb, it may be modified by 'right' or 'straight'.
"We flew straight there."
"The book is right there – in front of you."
Prepositional phrases
So, is 'there' (and I suppose we could extend this to its interrogative: 'where') an adverb, a preposition or some other category of word?
Best Answer
As is well-recognised by linguists, dictionaries are not a good place to start when trying to establish parts of speech. A good reference grammar is. Of the three great grammars of the English language from the last hundred years, the most recent and up-to-date is The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language, Huddleston and Pullum, 2002. It says the following:
(For a fuller account, consult pages 598-691). Part of the reason given for there and here being prepositions is that, exactly as OP has commented, they are modifiable by straight and right. Furthermore, these words function in the same way as other prepositional phrases: they are able to function as locative complements of the verb BE, and also as spacial and temporal adjuncts.
Many phrase types have the latter function, including adverbs and adverb phrases, however adverbs don't generally function as complements of the verb BE. Furthermore adverbs are not modifiable by either right or straight:
Complements of BE
Straight and right as modifiers.
This all goes to show that the OP is indeed correct: there does indeed seem to be a preposition.
Hope this is helpful