The Loyal Apposition
by Tina Blue
October 2, 2001
ESSENTIAL TERM: substantive--A substantive is a noun or noun equivalent. (A noun equivalent, or noun substitute, is any word, phrase, or clause that functions as a noun in a sentence.)
~Topics covered in this article:
I. What is an appositive?
II. How is an appositive punctuated?
III. How do we decide an appositive's case?
IV. What is an apposive fragment?
I. What is an appositive?
An appositive is a substantive that follows another substantive to identify or explain it.
Mr. Smith, a well-respected lawyer, has just retired from active practice.
Professor James, an expert in Victorian poetry, will be giving a lecture tonight.
(In both of these examples, the appositive is a noun phrase--i.e., a noun plus all of its modifiers.)
The word appositive comes from Latin (appositus) by way of the French verb apponere, meaning to place near or next to (ad + ponere).
II. How should an appositive be punctuated?
A. NONRESTRICTIVE APPOSITIVES
Usually an appositive adds parenthetical, nondefining, information, so it is nonrestrictive. A nonrestrictive (parenthetical) element is set off by commas, as in the previous examples.
Mr. Smith, a well-respected lawyer, has just retired from active practice.
Professor James, an expert in Victorian poetry, will be giving a lecture tonight.
MORE EXAMPLES:
Your task, to seek out new civilizations and boldly go where no man has gone before, will probably occupy the rest of your adult life.
The U.N. Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has spent much of his tenure working to promote peace in the Third World.
This is Jennifer, my college roommate's youngest daughter.
B. RESTRICTIVE APPOSITIVES
1. Sometimes the appositional word or phrase limits or restricts the substantive it is in apposition to. When the appositive is restrictive, it is not set off by commas.
My brother Pat lives in Arizona.
In this sentence the name "Pat" is needed to specify which brother, since the reader has no other way of knowing which brother is being referred to. (One way to think of the issue of restrictive and non-restrictive elements is that a restrictive element provides information that is necessary to narrow the field of candidates down to one.)
But check out this example:
My other brother, Sam, lives in Texas.
In this sentence the first substantive, the noun phrase "My other brother," conveys the information that the writer has only two brothers, and it also specifies which of those two brothers is being referred to, so the brother's actual name is extra information--not necessary for specifying which of two brothers is being referred to.
In fact, if the appositive "Sam" were treated as restrictive, then the sentence would convey the information that the writer has two brothers named Sam! (Think of "The Bob Newhart Show," where his neighbor would introduce himself and his two brothers every time they entered a room: "Hi, I'm Larry. This is my brother Darryl, and this is my other brother Darryl.")
My sister Linda is even deafer than I am.
In this example we again have a first substantive that doesn't give us all the information (such as how many sisters I have or which one of them I am referring to) needed to narrow the field of candidates to one, so the sister's name is necessary (restrictive) information. If I were to write, "My sister, Linda, is even deafer than I am," I would be telling you that I have only one sister.
My youngest sister, Carol, has three children.
In this example, the phrase "my youngest sister" doesn't tell exactly how many sisters I have (though it does indicate three or more, because "youngest" is in the superlative form). But it does specify exactly which one I am referring to, as there can be only one "youngest sister," so the name "Carol" is extra information, not needed to specify which one of however many sisters I am referring to.
My daughter recently attended a performance of Shakespeare's tragedy King Lear.
In this case the play's title is a restrictive appositive. If I wrote "Shakespeare's tragedy, King Lear," I would be saying (wrongly, of course) that Shakespeare wrote only one tragedy, and thus that I don't need the play's title to let the reader know which one I am referring to.
2. If the appositive is part of a proper name, it is not set off by commas.
Richard the Lion-Hearted
In this name, "the Lion-Hearted" is in apposition to "Richard," but since it is part of the name he is known by, it is treated as part of the proper name and not set off by commas.
3. If the appositive is a noun clause, then it is usually not set off by commas.
The fact that I was ill prevented me from completing the project.
4. Often the appositive is introduced by namely, for example, that is, i.e., or e.g. These words and phrases are followed by a comma. Traditionally, they have also been preceded by a comma, but that actually allows for too much ambiguity. Look at these examples to see the possibility for confusion:
Two of my former teachers, namely, Miss. Leonard and Mr. Owens, have left the profession altogether.
Any subject in the humanities, for example, literature or history, can be used to teach writing skills and research techniques.
To prevent initial misreading of such sentences, it is often better to use dashes to set off the appositive.
Two of my former teachers--namely, Miss Leonard and Mr. Owens--have left the profession altogether.
Any subject in the humanities--for example, literature or history--can be used to teach writing skills and research techniques.
If the appositional element is particularly strong--that is, long and emphatic--then dashes rather than commas certainly should enclose it.
The girls' birthdays--Elizabeth's in November, Catherine's in September, Veronica's in February, and Christina's in December--all fall at the same point in the month.
The three highest vote-getters in the last election--George Bush for the Republicans, Al Gore for the Democrats, and Ralph Nader for the Greens--seemed to be using the election more for personal vindication than out of any particularly strong desire to serve in public office.
5. When such as introduces an appositive, it is preceded by a comma, but it is not followed by any punctuation. Let me clarify that: it is never followed by a comma or a colon.
WRONG: Some required courses, such as, calculus and lab science, seem to be of little use to a student whose career goal is to teach preschool and kindergarten.
WRONG: Some required courses, such as: calculus and lab science, seem to be of little use to a student whose career goal is to teach preschool and kindergarten.
RIGHT: Some required courses, such as calculus and lab science, seem to be of little use to a student whose career goal is to teach preschool and kindergarten.
WRONG: When studying for the test, pay special attention to the things we have gone over in class, such as, vocabulary words, the names of important people, and the dates of key events.
WRONG: When studying for the test, pay special attention to the things we have gone over in class, such as: vocabulary words, the names of important people, and the dates of key events.
RIGHT: When studying for the test, pay special attention to the things we have gone over in class, such as vocabulary words, the names of important people, and the dates of key events.
III. How do we decide an appositive's case?
A. Appositives that are pronouns must agree in number and case with the words they are in apposition to.
Ghengis Khan, he who united the warring Mongol tribes into a mighty military force, was also notorious for putting to the sword the entire population of resisting cities.
The media have had a field day with the linguistic blunders committed by George W. Bush, him of the tortured syntax and malapropistic vocabulary.
Here's an error from T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock":
Let us go then, you and I . . .
Technically, it should read, "Let us go then, you and me. . . ." The appositional pronouns ("you" and "I") need to be in the same (objective) case as the pronoun "us." But in Eliot's case I think we can call it poetic license.
B. When the first substantive is a pronoun, it should be in the case appropriate to its role in the sentence.
WRONG: Us students need to get much better grades on this next exam.
RIGHT: We students need to get much better grades on this next exam.
WRONG: Mr. Allen assured we students that the grades on the last exam would be dropped if we did better on the next one.
RIGHT: Mr. Allen assured us students that the grades on the last exam would be dropped if we did better on the next one.
