Caution - Noun-Parts Of Speech-ESL/Learn English Grammar

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20. It is to be remembered, however, that the above cases are
shiftings of the _use_, of words rather than of their _meaning_. We
seldom find instances of complete conversion of one part of speech
into another.

When, in a sentence above, the terms _the great_, _the wealthy_, are
used, they are not names only: we have in mind the idea of persons and
the quality of being _great_ or _wealthy_. The words are used in the
sentence where nouns are used, but have an adjectival meaning.

In the other sentences, _why_ and _wherefore_, _When_, _Now_, and
_Then_, are spoken of as if pure nouns; but still the reader considers
this not a natural application of them as name words, but as a figure
of speech.

NOTE.--These remarks do not apply, of course, to such words as become
pure nouns by use. There are many of these. The adjective _good_ has
no claim on the noun _goods_; so, too, in speaking of the _principal_
of a school, or a state _secret_, or a faithful _domestic_, or a
_criminal_, etc., the words are entirely independent of any adjective
force.



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