Appositives

An appositive is a noun or a noun phrase that sits next to another noun

to rename it or to describe it in another way. (The
word appositive comes from the Latin for to put near.)

Appositives are usually offset with commas, parentheses (round

brackets), or dashes.

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Easy Examples of Appositives

In the examples below, the appositive is shaded and the noun being
renamed or described in another way is in bold.

Appositives are usually offset with commas.

 Dexter, my dog, will chew your shoes if you leave them there.
 Lee, my Army mate, caught a whelk while fishing for bass.
 Dr. Pat, the creator of the turnip brew, sold 8 barrels on the
first day.
 The beast, a large lion with a mane like a bonfire, was
showing interest in our party.
Appositives can also be offset with parentheses (round brackets) or
dashes.
 Peter (my mate from school) won the lottery.
 For the last decade, prices in Alton –a small town only 25
minutes from London – have been soaring.

Restrictive and Non-restrictive

Appositives
Often an appositive will just provide bonus information that could be
removed without destroying the meaning. Sometimes, however,
removing an appositive will leave you with a question.
 Peter won the lottery.
 Dr. Pat sold 8 barrels on the first day.
Peter who? Which Dr. Pat? Eight barrels of what?

When an appositive is essential for understanding, it is called

a restrictive appositive. When it's just removable bonus information, it's
called a non-restrictive appositive. Non-restrictive appositives are
always offset with commas, dashes or brackets. Restrictive appositives
are usually offset with commas, dashes, or parentheses (round
brackets) but not always.
 My dog Dexter will chew your shoes if you leave them there.
 My Army mate Lee caught a whelk while fishing for bass.
When a restrictive appositive is not offset with punctuation (as in the two
examples above and the first example below), the structure will
be [generic term-specific term], as opposed to [specific term-
generic term].
 My sister Dawn might actually be an angel.
(The structure is [generic term-specific term].)
 Dawn, my sister, might actually be an angel.
(The structure is [specific term-generic term].)
When an appositive appears at the end of sentence, it can be
introduced with a colon.
 He demanded just one thing: loyalty.
(A comma or a dash would also be fine.)

Real-Life Examples of Appositives

 It is the perpetual dread of fear, the fear of fear, that shapes
the face of a brave man. (French author Georges Bernanos)
 Lou Epstein, the oldest, shortest, and baldest of the three
Epstein brothers, barely looked up from the cash register when
Alfred entered the store. (extract from The Contender by Robert
Lipsyte)
It is not uncommon for appositives to be introduced with terms
like namely, that is, in other words, and i.e.
 A clairvoyant is a person, commonly a woman, who has the
power of seeing that which is invisible to her patron –
namely, that he is a blockhead. (Author Ambrose Bierce)
 There is but one law for all , namely, that law which governs
all law, the law of our Creator, the law of humanity, justice and
equity – the law of nature and of nations. (Anglo-Irish statesman
Edmund Burke)
(It's pretty rare, but appositives can be lined up. It's
called commoratio, deliberate repetition for effect.)
 Is it really fair for the government – i.e., the taxpayers – to
provide people with cell phones? (Actor Tim Griffin)
(Using an introduction for an appositive (here, i.e.) is particularly
useful when it might take your readers a few moments to
understand why it's an appositive, namely, a term that describes
the noun in another way.)
The word appositive comes from the Latin
phrases ad and position meaning "near" and "placement." An appositive
will nearly always be to the immediate right of the noun it is renaming or
describing in another way. However, they do occasionally appear farther
away.
 Panic sprouted again, desperate fleeing panic, but there was
nowhere to flee to. (extract from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy by Douglas Adams)
This happens most commonly when the appositive follows a colon.
 He knew what his wish would be: the ability to turn stones into
gold.

Why Should I Care about Appositives?

As a native speaker, you'll naturally be good at creating restrictive
appositives (i.e., ones essential for meaning), but non-restrictive ones
(i.e., ones that just add bonus information) are likely to come less
naturally because it's a more deliberate act to insert them. If that's true
for you, it's something worth overcoming because appositives are useful
for providing interesting detail mid-sentence in a way that doesn't wreck
your sentence structure, and they can be good for emphasis.

So, here are two good reasons to care about appositives.

(Reason 1) Appositives are an efficient

way to add information.
The great thing about an appositive is that it can be used to shoehorn
interesting information or detail into your sentence without destroying
the sentence structure.
 Alexander Graham Bell, the man credited with inventing the
first telephone, was declared one of the country's greatest
inventors in 1936.
 Elizabeth I, the daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn,
became Queen of England in 1558.
 In his 1835 paper published in the Magazine of Natural
History, Edward Blyth, an acquaintance of Charles Darwin's,
had documented all the leading tenets of Darwin's work 24 years
ahead of Darwin's 1859 paper On the Origin of Species.
(Notice how the first appositive is offset with commas, but the
second, which appears in the [generic-specific structure],
isn't.)
If you were to remove all the shaded text (i.e., the appositives) from the
examples above, the sentences would still work.

(Reason 2) An appositive can be a way

of creating emphasis.
An appositive can be used to create emphasis. When used for this
purpose, the appositive is often a near-repeat of the initial noun.
 It is the perpetual dread of fear, the fear of fear, that shapes
the face of a brave man.
 This tale, this tragic tale, was full of cruel wars, savage
devastation, unnecessary deaths and the inevitable search for
bloody vengeance.
Another great way to create emphasis with an appositive is to put it at
the end of the sentence after a colon. To do this, you will need to
deliberately structure your sentence to set the stage for the appositive
(like a punchline).
 To pass this course you need just one trait: determination.
 (When an appositive is presented in this form, it's called an
emphatic appositive.)
 Most of today's Western philosophies are based on the
thoughts and teachings of the big three: Socrates, Plato, and
Aristotle.
Key Points
 Use an appositive, i.e., a renaming or new description of your
noun, to shoehorn interesting information or detail into your
sentence without destroying your sentence structure.
 Use an appositive to generate a near-repeat, a close copy, of
your idea to give it emphasis.
 There's one great literary device for generating emphasis: an
emphatic appositive.