In specific and technical writing, the writers have to meet a number of demands. These demands are clarification, specification, complementation, justification, and elaboration of head nouns in noun phrases along with the reader’s guidance, and engagement. For this purpose, the writers can use several resources. One such resource is the use of appositive and appositive phrases. Appositives and appositive phrases can be used in various ways, i.e., as essential, non-essential, parenthetical, or indicative elements. The writers’ mastery of these elements enables them to make their texts informative as well as impactful. For this purpose, this post details these elements in an elaborative and illustrative manner.
1. An Appositive
An appositive is a noun or a pronoun that is placed close to another noun or pronoun to explain or justify it. This it does by supplying additional information about the head noun. Hence, the head noun becomes clarified, specified, or elaborated. Renaming of the head noun with an appositive means that it stays as another name for the head noun. For example, in “My teacher, Shafeeq, is a trained teacher,” ‘Shafeeq’ is the appositive that renames the noun ‘teacher’.
2. An Appositive Phrase
An appositive phrase stays after a head noun as its post-modifier. It includes all the words or phrases that collectively modify the head noun. However, such a phrase carries equal status with the head noun which is modified by it. As for as its function is concerned, it provides more detail or context about the head noun. Actually, the appositive phrase explains, justifies, renames or modifies a noun or a pronoun. Simply put, it clarifies the head noun’s meaning by adding descriptive elements. For instance, in “The Indus River, an inter-territorial river, has a long history”. In this construction, the appositive phrase ‘an inter-territorial river’ explains what sort of river the Indus River is.
3. Types of Appositives
There are two types of appositives, i.e. essential and non-essential appositives. If the appositive is essential, it specifies or identifies which person or object is in focus. When it is essential, it is not set off by commas or parentheses as in “My sister Shaheena is a medical doctor”. In this situation, Shaheena is essential to specify or identify which sister is in focus. If the appositive is not essential, it is set off by commas, e.g. “My friend, a retired army officer, is a volunteer emergency worker”. In this example, the appositive phrase, i.e. “a retired army officer” though provides additional information, it is not essential for this sentence. Therefore, it can be set off by commas. Some more examples are as follows:
- I have been talking to my sisters Nusrat and Aneela.
- A person of many talents Zeeshan writes poetry.
- Rasheed won first prize, a trip to Saudi Arabia.
- Mr Khaleel, my father’s friend from Lahore, is visiting us this evening.
In examples, (a) and (b) appositives are essential and in (c) and (d) they are non-essential.
On the whole, appositives as modifiers add additional information to head nouns as do the adjectives. However, appositives add more descriptive power, enhance clarity and supply additional context for the head noun in a noun phrase. For example:
- On vacation, I enjoyed two activities, swimming and walking.
- My brother Imran is a lecturer.
- Mr. Tanwir, the man for whom I work, is opposed to T.V. publicity.
- Stories about Sherlock Holmes, the famous detective, keep me in suspense for hours.
- An efficient organizer, Mr. Musthaq, is always elected chairperson of the committee.
- The keynote speaker, Shehzad Ahamad, received an ovation.
- The homophones ‘there’, ‘their’, and ‘they’re’ cause spelling problems for many people.
In the examples given above, constructions in italics indicate various appositives.
4. Delayed Appositive Phrase
When an appositive is not placed just after the noun it renames, it is called delayed appositive. Further, a delayed appositive may rename the head noun in certain constructions. For example:
- Shaheen impressed all in the meeting, a talented officer.
- It is a pleasure to win a trophy.
The function of a delayed appositive phrase is not only to modify the head noun, it also impresses the audience.
5. Appositives after Punctuation Marks
Appositive phrases can stay after various punctuation marks. Structures constructed in this manner produce various meanings. It means, they indicate the nature of appositives, and facilitate in the provision of additional information about the head noun. Appositive phrases as post-modifiers may take a comma before them when they follow the head noun. The colon is another type of punctuation that can stay between the head noun and the appositive or appositive phrase. Some non-native writers also use quotation marks or dashes before and after appositive phrases.
5.1 Comma
off-task, non-academic activities, evening walk, my favorite activity
5.2 Colon
the question: which physical activities have a bigger impact on body health, sports or daily life activitiescertain conditions: that the speakers have enough time to process their message, that the speaker be focused on conveying their message correctly. Further, the speakers have a clear enough understanding of the rule that they are attempting to apply.
6. Appositives with Parentheses
The appositives with parentheses are commonly used when the writers need to supply information in detail. The use of parentheses in academic prose is common because academic prose carries an excessive amount of information which serves as details for the better understanding of texts. Such information is placed in parentheses so that the information flow in the text is not interrupted. For example, in the new software (version 3) is not available in the market; the document (a comprehensive report) was necessary for this action, etc. In addition, the information that shows examples, acronym, percentage, additional information or words that show attachment, table, or figure, is placed in parentheses. For example:
- 150 immigrants (travelling from the Asian countries)
- Students with Stinted Height (SSH)
- Comparison between phrasal and clausal structures (Table 6)
In early days, mostly comma was used as a resource to help separate two noun phrases. In the nineteenth century, the use of parentheses as an indicator of the appositive noun phrase emerged as a structural/textual innovation. Later this innovation has become a convention and stays restricted almost entirely to academic writing. Currently, for the provision of more specific and technical information, appositive is also becoming more complex. This complexity appears in academic research writing through the embedment of appositive noun phrases at multiple levels. For example:
a. A multinational community was examined as regards peaceful co-existence, Intercultural Communication (IC), Mutual Respect (MR) and Social Competitiveness (SC) were found conducive to a bright future.
The purpose of such a use of appositive phrases is to represent complex meaning relationships to the head noun.
7. Appositives as Indicators
In addition to punctuation marks, there are six types of indicators such as in particular, such as, for instance, especially, namely and including. These indicators mark the constructions which stay after the head noun as appositives. For instance and such as are used to indicate examples while especially and in particular are used to express the writer’s concerns. Namely and including are used to provide additional information related to the head noun. For example:
a. They learnt how to use all the tenses, in particular simple past tense.
b. They are expert in interacting in a more formal situation, such as with their bilingual employer.
c. Many societies still consume traditional food items, for instance, simple bread, vegetables, etc.
d. He loves all smart foods, especially pizza.
e. The company provided the workers with all kinds of necessities, namely, food, dress, transport, etc.
f. All the employees, including the manager, made a tour to a beach resort.
All the above examples carry the appositive indicators that have been italicized.
8. Non-Appositive Noun Phrases
The non-appositive NPs are different from appositive NPs in the sense that they cannot replace the head noun. For example, a man my level is rarely available, cannot be written as my level is rarely available. Some more examples of the non-appositive NPs are:
- a room this size,
- my mentor Raheel,
- someone his own height, etc.
In the examples given above, constructions in italics are non-appositive noun phrases.
In essence, appositive or appositive phrases are the constructions in the form of pronouns or nouns which explain or justify a head noun. As post-modifiers, these modify head noun by renaming, explaining, or identifying it. This they do by furnishing additional information about the head noun. Further, these modifiers may be essential or non-essential. If their presence is necessary for the identification of the head, they are essential. Contrarily, if their presence is not essential, i.e. they simply provide additional information about the head noun, they are non-essential. In such as case, they are separated from the head noun by putting a comma before them. In addition, they can be put after a number of punctuation marks to indicate their various roles in specific and technical information.
Sources Consulted
- Biber et al. (1999)
- Biber and Gray (2011)
- Mutiara, R. (2019)
