03-10-2020, 03:44 PM
When some suggest labels could be adjectives or numbers I would be surprised if that in general, historically, that is not an unusual scenario compared to the scenario that they are nouns. Finding one manuscript where that is the case does not mean the probability overall that a label is an adjective is not very small. Then one has to ask are we saying all labels are adjectives or numbers or just some? Do all labels of one type correspond to the same part of speech? So are some small plant labels adjectives, some numbers and some nouns or are they all of the same type? Statistically I would imagine that "rare" words are much more likely to be nouns. I believe that "rare" words are disproportionately more common amongst labels. (Numbers in particular face their own problem in justifying them as labels.)