TB = Terrence Brannon, RH=Roger Hui
TB> [Learning J] never explicitly states whether [\] is a verb or conjunction.
TB> which takes a verb as its left-hand argument
It's an adverb.
Verbs can only take nouns as arguments. If a primitive takes a verb as an
argument, it must either be an adverb or a conjunction.
If it takes only one argument, it's an adverb. If it takes two arguments, it's
a conjunction. You may think of adverba and conjunctions as higher-level
analogs of monadic and dyadic verbs, respectively.
The typography in the Vocabulary's front page hints at the different classes of
the primitives defined. Unadorned text indicates verbs, italicized (not
bolded) text indicates nouns, bolded (not italicized) text indicates
conjunctions, and bolded, italicized text indicates adverbs.
And, new in the J601 Dictionary, the parts of speech are explicitly spelled out:
http://www.jsoftware.com/help/dictionary/partsofspeech.htm
(which the Vocabuarly links to under "Parts of Speech".)
TB> Hmm, it's starting to look like an adjective
Formally, "adjective" is not in the J glossary. But I tend to think of adverbs
which modify nouns (like m~ EVOKE) as adjectives.
TB> [adverbs] force the rank of what it modifies based on
TB> dictionary help.
I'm not sure I understand this assertion. But verbs derived from adverbs (and
conjunctions) mostly have infinite (outer) rank. Obviously, it all depends on
the specific modifier.
TB> the author [of LJ] starts off disussing \ ...
Don't expect LJ (or any other book) to reprise the Dictionary. These books are
meant to supplement, summarize and clarify the DoJ, not replace it. As Roger
said earlier:
RH> At some point in your J programming you should
RH> consult the J reference material,
-Dan
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