Sunday, June 13, 2021

How should 'below' be used and classified?

 Do you accept using 'below' as in 'the below information', 'the below list', 'the below section', etc."?


An admin document from The Harvard Teaching Certificate Course contains the following sentence:

"Make sure your address below is correct. You can search again or edit the below address manually."

What is interesting is that 'below' is used twice in the same sentence, but in different ways.

If my impression is correct, until 10 years ago, people would only say 'the information below', with 'below' classified as an adverb! (This is different from 'below' as a preposition, as in 'below the table', 'below the surface', etc.). Today, to me, the fight against phrases like 'the below information' and 'the below list' is over. (The word 'above' went through a similar process. Now, it's "below"'s turn.)

Then 'below' has to be classified as an adjective. I've looked up a few online dictionaries. Almost all of them still classify 'below' as a preposition ('below the table') and an adverb (the information below). Only one dictionary has classified 'below' also as an adjective: Merriam-Webster.

What is even more interesting is that in the Harvard sentence, the first occurrence of 'below' is 'Your address below', i.e., the 'traditional' word order. If I change it to 'Your below address', it doesn't sound quite right to my ear (though I have no problem accepting 'the below information'). I can't think of a reason yet, but this might suggest that there's still a place for 'below' to function as an adverb (though I personally prefer calling it a postmodifying adjective).

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