Question

What part of speech is the italicized word in the sentence below? Four score and seven years ago, our forefathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation conceived in (liberty) and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Answer 1

Based on their functions and use, words are categorized into different parts of speech. In this case, the word “liberty” functions as a noun within a participial phrase “conceived in liberty”. Participial phrases include objects and modifiers to complete an idea and these phrases always act as adjectives since they modify nouns or pronouns. The participial sentence in this example is modifying the noun “nation”.