Appositives attract
Mar 12th, 2009 | By John Roach | Category: Grammar
Appositives are nouns or noun phrases that represent the same thing and sit next to each other in a sentence. For example,
My wife, Jenny, should know how lucky she is to be married to me.
Here, My wife and Jenny are the same person; Jenny serves to explain my wife.
Apposition is a technical concept. In fact, I consider it a demarcation: If a grammar book deals with it, it is a technical book and therefore overkill for the average reader. But by understanding how they work, you can avoid implying that some poor faithful husband a bigamist.
Restrictive and nonrestrictive appositives
As with phrases, appositives can be either restrictive or nonrestrictive. Restrictive appositives narrow the meaning; nonrestrictive ones do not.
Restrictive: My sister Sally still has powdered donut mix from her Y2K-scare days.
Nonrestrictive: My favorite book, Crime and Punishment, still gives me chills.
The difference in the two examples is that the first implies that I have more than one sister. Sally, therefore, limits My sister to one person. But I have only one favorite book, so Crime and Punishment is not limiting it, only clarifying it.
Nonrestrictive appositives should be set off by commas; this makes the meaning clear. Restrictive constructions should not be.
Common appositive errors
I often see constructions such as this:
John and his wife Jenny relaunched her blog, Jennifermroach.com.
Of course, that implies that I have more than one wife, which I don’t, nor do I want to. Set off Jenny in commas and move on with your life.
There you have it: You now understand appositives and can impress friends and loved ones at dinner parties. Just remember to use your powers only for good.
|
This article was written by John Roach http://prowritingtips.com John is a writer and copy editor. You can follow him on twitter at @johnwroachiii. To see more posts click here |
I knew there was a reason that sometimes I feel like I have to throw a comma in there and sometimes I feel like I do not. Now that I know there is an actual rule, I can stop the second guessing.
Now, is this separate from your patented “just for the heck of it” comma?
Oh ya, the “just for the heck of it” comma is to prevent run on sentences. You know, like stop signs? If I’m making people stop, in the middle of the sentence, it is not “running on”, is it?
These commas, well they’re just for making a positive identification, right?
Just so. Though, I must say they resent your deprecating “just” characterization of their role. They tell me that they are very important.
But ego trips aside, yes, they signal whether we’re talking about one thing or two.