ABSTRACT
13.11. The question has often been asked whether cannon in cannon ball is an adjective or not. See, for instance, Sayce, Introduction to the Science of Language 2.332, who says: In "cannon ball" cannon is as much an adjective as black, cf. ib 1.417 "We are told that a school-inspector plucked some children a short time ago for saying that cannon in cannon-ball was a noun instead of an adjective; the pedantry of the act was only equal to the ignorance it displays, and illustrates how often the artificial nomenclature of grammar breaks down when confronted with the real facts of language." At a meeting of the Philological Society of London, on the 1st of April 1881, the theory that cannon was here an adjective, was defended by Morris and Furnivall, whose reasons are not given, and attacked by Murray and Sweet. As both of these latter have given their reasons, we must look at them.
