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Fun with grammar: the parts of speech of PSB album titles

Every Pet Shop Boys album title is, of course, a noun: a word that names a person, place, or thing—in this case, a record album. But from the very beginning, Neil and Chris made it clear that they intended for their album titles to be considered in a grammatical context in conjunction with their own collective moniker, "Pet Shop Boys." (Something of an affectation, to be sure, but an uncommonly thoughtful and intelligent one.) At any rate, as a writer, former writing instructor, and admitted descriptivist grammarian, I thought it would be fun to analyze the parts of speech of each PSB album title within that grammatical context. Keep in mind that a word's part of speech is determined by its usage more than by its meaning or any other inherent quality. And also remember: it's pedantic only if you take it too seriously.

So here, in chronological order, is each single-word PSB album title, followed (in parentheses) by a designation of its part of speech as well as a succinct analysis. And—wouldn't you know it?—even the very first one isn't as cut and dried as you might think:

• Please (adverb, though one can make a pretty good argument for it being a verb)

  The word "please" is commonly used as either a verb or adverb, a fact that the Beatles took unforgettable advantage of in the title and refrain of one of their earliest hits, "Please Please Me." (The first "please" is an adverb modifying the second "please," a verb.) When the Pet Shop Boys released their first album, they explained their choice of title by saying that they got a kick out of imagining young people going into record shops and asking for "Pet Shop Boys, Please," effectively forcing them to be polite. In this context, the word "please" is traditionally regarded as an adverb.

  But I'm inclined to take issue with the traditional stance. You see, if a person were to ask, "Please give me a copy of the album," then "please" is undoubtedly an adverb modifying the verb "give." But I believe saying "Pet Shop Boys, please" is essentially verbal shorthand for "Pet Shop Boys, if you please" (or even "Pet Shop Boys, if it please you," employing "please" as opposed to "pleases" on account of the English language's increasingly rare subjunctive mood), in which case "please" is indisputably a verb. So it all depends on how you look at it.

• Disco (noun)

  If the text on the cover of Disco had read Disco Pet Shop Boys, then "Disco" would be an adjective modifying the proper noun "Pet Shop Boys." But instead it read Pet Shop Boys Disco, suggesting that "Pet Shop Boys" should be considered a proper adjective modifying the noun "Disco." In other words, what kind of disco is it? – A Pet Shop Boys disco!

• Actually (adverb)

  In English, the vast majority of words ending in "-ly" are adverbs in their most common contexts, and "actually" is no exception. On the album's cover, the words "Pet Shop Boys, actually" are printed, precisely like that. This is the answer to the implied question, "Who is it?" It's the Pet Shop Boys, actually. "Actually" is an adverb modifying the verb "is," a fact made clear when you rephrase the reply as "It actually is the Pet Shop Boys." One of the interesting things about most adverbs in English—no, not all, but most—is that you can move them all around in a sentence without substantively changing its meaning or grammatical correctness:
  

  • Actually, it's the Pet Shop Boys.
  • It actually is the Pet Shop Boys.
  • It's actually the Pet Shop Boys.
  • It's the Pet Shop Boys, actually.

  So there's no doubt about it: Actually is an adverb.

• Introspective (adjective)

  With their 2001 album reissues, the Pet Shop Boys made it clear that they regarded the proper grammatical context of their Introspective album title to be "Introspective Pet Shop Boys." So "Introspective" is indisputably an adjective modifying the noun "Pet Shop Boys."

• Behaviour (noun)

  Another one fully clarified with the 2001 reissues. This time it was "Pet Shop Boys Behaviour," in which "Pet Shop Boys" serves as a proper adjective modifying the noun "behaviour." That is, what type of behaviour is it? It's Pet Shop Boys behaviour!

• Discography (noun)

  You can't much argue with this one: it's a Pet Shop Boys discography.

• Very (adverb, though one can make a strained argument for it being an adjective)

  The "expanded" album title, "Very Pet Shop Boys," is essentially in answer to such implied questions as "How would you describe this album?" or "What type of music is it?" The fully grammatical response would be, "It's very Pet Shop Boys." In this case, "Pet Shop Boys" becomes a predicate adjective modifying the pronoun "It." And "very" then serves as an adverb modifying the adjective "Pet Shop Boys." This is the view to which I subscribe.
  
  I'll concede, however, that if you take it out of that implied context, one can make a case for "very" being an adjective modifying the noun "Pet Shop Boys." While "very" is most often used in English as an adverb modifying adjectives, it is occasionally used as an adjective, as in the phrase "the very heart of the matter." So it's not inconceivable that "very" in "Very Pet Shop Boys" could be regarded as an adjective. I don't, personally—but I won't lose any sleep over it if you do.

• Relentless (adjective)

  Clearly an adjective, the word "relentless" is meant to describe the album's music and/or the Pet Shop Boys themselves.

  It's worth noting that when used together, as they often have been, Very Relentless underscores the fact that Very is indeed an adverb. Only adverbs modify adjectives.

• Alternative (adjective)

  The album cover reads "Alternative Pet Shop Boys," indicating that "alternative" is an adjective modifying the noun "Pet Shop Boys." Seeing as how "alternative" can also function as a noun, if it had been the other way around (Pet Shop Boys Alternative), it would have been—the other way around.

• Bilingual (adjective)

There can be little if any dispute about this one: "Bilingual Pet Shop Boys," in which "bilingual" serves as an adjective to modify "Pet Shop Boys."

• Essential (adjective)

  Ah, the forgotten PSB album. But, again, this one is straightforward enough: "Essential Pet Shop Boys," with "essential" in the role of an adjective.

• Nightlife (noun)

  The compound word "nightlife" is surely intended as a noun. (One can make a contrived argument for it being an adjective, but that's precisely what it would be: a contrivance.) If we were to combine this with "Pet Shop Boys," then it would be "Pet Shop Boys Nightlife." That is, what sort of nightlife is it? A Pet Shop Boys nightlife, of course!

• Release (noun)

  What kind of release is it? It's a Pet Shop Boys release, of course! Hence, Release is in this instance a noun, despite the fact that it's even more often used as a verb, and occasionally even as an adjective.

• PopArt (noun)

  The album cover reads, in small type in the upper-left corner, "Pet Shop Boys" with "The Hits" just below. And then the "title proper," PopArt, appears in big, bold, pop-arty letters. While one could make a case for it being an adjective (as in "a popart album"), I think a much stronger case can be made for it being a compound noun: a label or title per se, the name of the thing. Or, to look at it another way, it's a collection of the Pet Shop Boys' popart.

• Fundamental (adjective, though one can make a strained argument for it being a noun)

  Here's one where I believe the Pet Shop Boys—or at least their graphic artist—made an outright mistake. The album cover clearly states "Pet Shop Boys" with "Fundamental" just beneath it, thereby suggesting "Pet Shop Boys Fundamental" as a likely reading of the "expanded title." This context in turn suggests that "fundamental" should be considered a noun, with "Pet Shop Boys" a proper adjective modifying it. And it's not utterly nonsensical to think of it in that light. "Fundamental" does have legitimate meanings and usage as a noun. As stated in Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, under its second primary usage of the word:
  

  ²fundamental n 1: something fundamental; esp: one of the minimum constituents without which a thing or a system would not be what it is 2 a : the prime tone of a harmonic series b : the root of a chord 3 : the harmonic component of a complex wave that has the lowest frequency and commonly the greatest amplitude.
  

  As tempting as it might be to draw upon the musical connotations of the word in this context, I think it's a tremendous strain in the face of a much simpler explanation: that Fundamental is an adjective (by far its most common usage), as in "Fundamental Pet Shop Boys"—the arrangement of the words on the album packaging notwithstanding.

• Concrete (adjective or perhaps noun)

  A good case can be made for the word "concrete" in this context being either an adjective (describing the music, the building in which it was performed live, or perhaps even the Boys themselves) or a noun (as in one of the primary substances used in constructing the aforementioned building). But I lean more toward the adjective myself.

• Yes (adverb or perhaps noun or interjection)

  Both "yes" and "no" are somewhat problematic words from a grammatical perspective. That is, they're rather hard to categorize definitively as parts of speech. That being said, they're most commonly regarded as adverbs that modify the verbs in the questions to which they're used in response: for example, "Will you buy the album?" – "Yes, I will." or "How did he vote?"– "He voted yes." They can, however, also be considered nouns, with "yes" meaning "a reply in the affirmative." And they can even be interjections, such as when they're sudden exclamations of surprise or other strong emotions.
  
  If we consider how the word "yes" might be used in syntactic conjunction with "Pet Shop Boys," the most likely construction is, "Yes, Pet Shop Boys." Another way to say the same thing would be "Yes, it's the Pet Shop Boys." If we take that as our guide, then Yes is best described as an adverb modifying the verb "is" implied in "Yes, [it's the] Pet Shop Boys."

• Pandemonium (noun, though one can make a strained argument for it being an adjective)

  In both origin (as Milton's capital of Hell) and most common usage, the word "pandemonium" is a noun referring to a state of utter confusion, much as "happiness," "sadness," and even "confusion" itself are also nouns that assign names to specific states of being. One could make a case, however, for it being an adjective if you consider that the album was recorded live during the Pet Shop Boys' "Pandemonium Tour," in which case "pandemonium" can be thought of as modifying the word "tour." But I think that's a stretch. I vote for noun.

• Ultimate (adjective)

  This one's easy—no need for an elaborate explanation. It's Ultimate Pet Shop Boys, after all. The adjective "ultimate" modifies the noun "Pet Shop Boys."

• Format (noun)

  Another very simple one. Although the word "format" can be used as a verb, in this case it's surely intended (based on what Chris and Neil themselves have said about it) as a noun in reference to the various formats in which PSB single bonus tracks have been released.
  

• Elysium (noun)

  Of all the album titles, not counting the numbered Disco albums and the multi-word Tennant-Lowe works, this is the one for which any grammatical context with "Pet Shop Boys" seems least satisfactory. Nevertheless, whether you regard the "expanded title" as "Pet Shop Boys Elysium" or not, there's virtually no way you can see Elysium as anything but a noun, and a proper noun at that.

• Electric (adjective)

An easy one—it would be difficult to make a case for anything other than an adjective. If you really stretch it, one might argue that it could be a noun, too, such as when my high school typing teacher used to refer to the electric typewriters in her classroom simply as "the electrics" (as opposed to "the manuals"). But adjective wins, hands down.

• Super (adjective or interjection)

While "super" can be a noun—short for "superintendent" or "supervisor"—no one could think that's what the Boys had in mind when they chose it as the title for their thirteenth studio album. No, "super" in this and most other cases is an adjective: "Super Pet Shop Boys." The only other reasonable alternative is an interjection: "Pet Shop Boys!? Super!" Neil and Chris, in fact, have suggested this usage (which they hear a lot during their visits to Germany) as an inspiration for the title: "Oh, super!" Of course, even in this interjective usage there's a strongly implied adjectival function. To put it another way, you say "Super!" when you think something is super.

• Hotspot (noun)

  This compound word is undoubtedly a noun, derived of course from the elision of an adjective (hot) and noun (spot). To make any other part of speech out of it (such as a theoretical adjective, as in "a hotspot place"—ugh!) would require a good deal of questionable grammatical contortion. And "Pet Shop Boys Hotspot" makes much more sense than "Hotspot Pet Shop Boys."

• Smash (noun, adjective, or interjection, but probably not a verb)

  Yes, "smash" is a verb (as in to smash something), but that's not what's going on here. It can also, however, be used as an adjective (as in a "smash hit"), as an interjection (as in "SMASH!" appearing in a cartoon panel), and as a noun (as a synonym for a "hit"). I personally believe the best case can be made for the latter, especially since I'm sure the Boys would very much like for the album itself to prove a smash—a "Pet Shop Boys Smash," that is. Nevertheless, their own explanation for why they chose this title for their fourth hits collection alludes to all three of these latter parts of speech.

• Nonetheless (adverb)

  The word "nonetheless" is almost invaribly used as a conjunctive adverb used to modify and link two seemingly opposing phrases, clauses, or sentences. One might say either "Pet Shop Boys nonetheless" (which is how the album cover actually puts it) or "Nonetheless Pet Shop Boys." It does beg the question, however, of what Pet Shop Boys are "opposed" to. That is, what's the alternative?

So what's the count thus far? If you don't count the "alternate arguments" and the cases of "perhaps," always going instead with what I believe to be the strongest cases, then we have:

• 11 nouns,
• 10 adjectives, and
• 5 adverbs.

I'm voting for something other than these three parts of speech for the next album. How about a clear-cut, unambiguous verb? A pronoun? A preposition or a conjunction would be nice.

Or how about an all-out, unmistakable interjection? Smash doesn't quite cut it for me. I can see it now: Pet Shop Boys, Dammit!

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