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264
The apposition
§ 90. An apposition is a part of the sentence expressed by a noun or nominal phrase and referring to another
noun or nominal phrase (the headword), or sometimes to a clause.
The apposition may give another designation to, or description of, the person or non-person, or else put it in
a certain class of persons or non-persons. In the latter case it is similar to an attribute, as it characterizes the
person or non-person denoted by the headword.
Beyond the villa, a strange-looking building, began the forest.
He had remembered her at once, for he always admired her, a very pretty creature.
He knows about everything - a man of the world.
The whole thing was indescribable - a terrific spectacle, a stupendous symphony of sound.
Like the attribute, the apposition may be in preposition or postposition. However, unlike the attribute, which
is always subordinated to its headword and is usually connected with other parts in the sentence only through it,
words in apposition are, at least syntactically, coordinated parts, that is, both the headword and the apposition
are constituents of the same level in the sentence. This may be illustrated by two possible types of
transformation of sentences with words in apposition.
Mr Smith, the local doctor,
was known to everybody.
The local doctor, Mr Smith,
was known to everybody.
However, an apposition can rarely replace the headword in the sentence. Substitution is possible only if the
apposition meets the following conditions:
1. It denotes the same person or non-person as the headword.
Winterbourne was back on the Somme, that incredible desert, pursuing the retreating enemy.
If it puts the person or non-person in a certain class of persons or nonpersons, no substitution is possible.
Thus the sentence Mr Smith, a local doctor, was known to everybody cannot be transformed into the sentence
*A local doctor was known to everybody.
2. It is expressed by words of the same morphological class as its headword. Otherwise the apposition may
be unacceptable in the structure of the sentence because of its grammatical or lexical meaning. This can be
illustrated by the sentence: She was seized by a gust of curiosity to see that wife of his, which does not allow the
substitution of the apposition for the headword - She was seized by a gust of to see that wife of his.
3. It follows the headword immediately and has no dependent words which may hinder substitution.
Otherwise, the dependent words may block the connection and make the apposition unacceptable in the
structure of the sentence. Thus, the sentence John, at that time a student, wrote several articles on architecture
cannot be transformed into At that lime a student wrote several articles on architecture, for it changes the
meaning of the sentence altogether.
The sentences discussed above show the peculiarity of the appositive relation: although it resembles
coordination syntactically (in that the headword and the apposition are constituents of the same level within
the sentence), communicatively they are not of the same rank.
Appositions may be joined by a coordinating conjunction, or follow one another asyndetically. In both cases
appositions refer directly to the headword.
Dr and Mrs Macphail were left alone.
A man of action and a born leader, now forced into a state of thought, he was unhappy.
A daughter of poor but honest parents, I have no reason to be ashamed of my origins.
Types of connection between an apposition and its headword