Confusion between nouns and adverbs in あと一部


> この仕事はあと一部を残すだけだ。  
>  Only one part of the job remains.

Does one think of あと (remainder) as a noun (and object of 残す) and 一部 as a
counter/adverb, or is あと the adverb and 一部 the noun here?




To my ears あと sounds like an adverb - it's not 'one bit of remainder', it's
'one remaining bit'. あと is kind of in a weird place between noun and adverb,
since a lot of the time it requires a particle, but a phrase like あとどれくらい may
make this situation a bit more obvious - you can't quite do the same thing
with a noun where あと is unless you use a particle (so 女は何人いる, not *女何人いる).




To my ears あと sounds like an adverb - it's not 'one bit of remainder', it's
'one remaining bit'. あと is kind of in a weird place between noun and adverb,
since a lot of the time it requires a particle, but a phrase like あとどれくらい may
make this situation a bit more obvious - you can't quite do the same thing
with a noun where あと is unless you use a particle (so 女は何人いる, not *女何人いる).

