Time noun

Also known as: 时间名词 (shíjiān míngcí), 时间词 (shíjiāncí), time nominal and temporal noun.

Time nouns are nouns that provide information regarding time. One reason they're noteworthy in Chinese is that words indicating time in English are often adverbs, whereas their Chinese counterparts are nouns.

Notes

时间词

• Should be arranged in descending order of size: 年 月 日 小时
• Time nouns can also be adverbs (adverbial adjuncts to be precise - can have more than one in a phrase). Other types of nouns can't be adverbs.
• 然后 vs 以后 vs 后来

Sources

• 外国人实用汉语语法(中英文对照) (p. 20)
• 实用汉语语法 (p. 49)
• http://baike.baidu.com/view/1026652.html