and
which some grammarians do not analyze in parsing; _as, not at all, at
length, in fine, in full, at least, at present, at once, this once, in
vain, no doubt, on board_. But all words that convey distinct ideas, and
rightly retain their individuality, ought to be taken separately in
parsing. With the liberty of supposing a few ellipses, an ingenious parser
will seldom find occasion to speak of "adverbial phrases." In these
instances, _length, doubt, fine_, and _board_, are unquestionably nouns;
_once_, too, is used as a noun; _full_ and _all_ may be parsed either as
nouns, or as adjectives whose nouns are understood; _at least_, is, _at the
least measure; at present_, is, _at the present time_; and _in vain_, is,
_in a vain course, or manner._

OBS. 3.--A phrase is a combination of two or more separable parts of
speech, the _parsing_ of which of course implies their separation. And
though the division of our language into words, and the division of its
words into parts of speech, have never yet been made exactly to correspond,
it is certainly desirable to bring them as near together as possible. Hence
such terms as _everywhere, anywhere, nowadays, forever, everso, to-day,
to-morrow, by-and-by, inside-out, upside-down_, if they are to be parsed
simply as adverbs, ought to be compounded, and not written as phrases.

OBS. 4--Under nearly all the different classes of words, some particular
instances may be quoted, in which other parts of speech seem to take the
nature of adverbs, so as either to become such, or to be apparently used
_for_ them. (1.) ARTICLES: "This may appear incredible, but it is not _the_
less true."--_Dr. Murray's Hist._, i, 337. "The other party was _a_ little
coy."--_D. Webster._ (2.) NOUNS: "And scrutiny became _stone_[306]
blind."--_Cowper._ "He will come _home to-morrow._"--_Clark._ "They were
travelling _post_ when he met them."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 69. "And with a
vengeance sent from Media _post_ to Egypt."--_Milton, P. L._, B. iv, l.
170. "That I should care _a groat_ whether he likes the work or
not."--_Kirkham._ "It has snowed terribly all night, and is _vengeance_
cold."--_Swift._ (3.) ADJECTIVES: "Drink _deep_, or taste not."--_Pope._ "A
place _wondrous_ deep."--_Webster's Dict._ "That fools should be so _deep_
contemplative."--_Shak._ "A man may speak _louder_ or _softer_ in the same
key; when he speaks _higher_ or _lower_, he changes his key."--_Sheridan's
Elocution_, p. 116. (4.) PRONO