It’s common to use the words above and below in a document to refer to material that appears before or after the current location, respectively. When you use one of these words in a phrase like as mentioned above, there’s no problem. Be aware, however, that if you write the below table, some people may criticise you for being ungrammatical, because below is not an adjective. Grammatical wisdom says that a single word between the and a noun must be an adjective – or possibly another noun (as, for example, in ‘the acronym table’).
Nevertheless, you’ll find that people do write the below table reasonably often and it may well become a generally accepted usage. In fact, the completely parallel term the above table seems to have already been accepted and the dictionaries have started accommodating it by declaring that above actually can be an adjective.
If you prefer to play safe and avoid possible censure for the below table, there’s an easy remedy: change it to the table below.
It’s natural to ask what makes this version OK when the other is not. The traditional grammarian’s answer is that the below in the below table is an adverb, and that adverbs often go at the end of a sentence or clause.
I accepted that explanation for many years. However, recently I looked at it again and asked myself: how on earth can that below be an adverb? The traditional description of an adverb is ‘a word that modifies the meaning of a verb, adjective or other adverb’. Well, there’s no word that’s modified by that below.
If that below isn't an adverb, then what is it? And why can we be sure that is acceptable?
I finally found answers to these questions while reading about how linguists have been revising some of the fundamental concepts of English grammar.
One change they’ve introduced is to enlarge the class of prepositions.Traditional grammarians insist that a preposition must be followed by a noun or pronoun. This means that before can’t be a preposition in either that was before he died (where it’s followed by a clause) or he’s been here before (where it’s followed by nothing). However, it is recognised as a preposition in before Tuesday (because Tuesday is a noun). Imposing that limitation on prepositions forccs those grammarians to assign those three occurrences of before to three different word classes. The first is said to be a ‘subordinating conjunction’, the second is said to be an adverb and only the third is a preposition.
Modern linguists now question the logic of this approach. Assigning before to these three different classes seems quite unnatural, as the constructions are otherwise very similar. Furthermore, saying that the before in he’s been here before is an adverb seems just as inappropriate as calling the below in the table below an adverb, and for the same reason – it doesn’t
modify anything. They have removed the restriction about being followed by a noun or pronoun and accordingly declare that before is a preposition in all three cases. If we accept their rulling, then we can asert that the ‘below’ in the phrase ‘the table below’ is a preposition, even though there’s no noun after it. And that is why the phrase is grammatical.
It’s common to use the words above and below in a document to refer to material that appears before or after the current location, respectively. When you use one of these words in a phrase like as mentioned above, there’s no problem. Be aware, however, that if you write the below table, some people may criticise you for being ungrammatical, because below is not an adjective. Grammatical wisdom says that a single word between the and a noun must be an adjective – or possibly another noun (as, for example, in ‘the acronym table’).
Nevertheless, you’ll find that people do write the below table reasonably often and it may well become a generally accepted usage. In fact, the completely parallel term the above table seems to have already been accepted and the dictionaries have started accommodating it by declaring that above actually can be an adjective.
If you prefer to play safe and avoid possible censure for the below table, there’s an easy remedy: change it to the table below.
It’s natural to ask what makes this version OK when the other is not. The traditional grammarian’s answer is that the below in the below table is an adverb, and that adverbs often go at the end of a sentence or clause.
I accepted that explanation for many years. However, recently I looked at it again and asked myself: how on earth can that below be an adverb? The traditional description of an adverb is ‘a word that modifies the meaning of a verb, adjective or other adverb’. Well, there’s no word that’s modified by that below.
If that below isn't an adverb, then what is it? And why can we be sure that is acceptable?
I finally found answers to these questions while reading about how linguists have been revising some of the fundamental concepts of English grammar.
One change they’ve introduced is to enlarge the class of prepositions.Traditional grammarians insist that a preposition must be followed by a noun or pronoun. This means that before can’t be a preposition in either that was before he died (where it’s followed by a clause) or he’s been here before (where it’s followed by nothing). However, it is recognised as a preposition in before Tuesday (because Tuesday is a noun). Imposing that limitation on prepositions forccs those grammarians to assign those three occurrences of before to three different word classes. The first is said to be a ‘subordinating conjunction’, the second is said to be an adverb and only the third is a preposition.
Modern linguists now question the logic of this approach. Assigning before to these three different classes seems quite unnatural, as the constructions are otherwise very similar. Furthermore, saying that the before in he’s been here before is an adverb seems just as inappropriate as calling the below in the table below an adverb, and for the same reason – it doesn’t modify anything. They have removed the restriction about being followed by a noun or pronoun and accordingly declare that before is a preposition in all three cases. If we accept their rulling, then we can asert that the ‘below’ in the phrase ‘the table below’ is a preposition, even though there’s no noun after it. And that is why the phrase is grammatical.