Just in case you aren’t keenly aware yet of their value, the skillful use of
appositives is an open secret to more engaging and lively writing. An appositive is a noun form that often comes directly before or after another noun in a sentence, serving as a rhetorical device that puts that noun in better context by succinctly providing relevant information about it. Whether the appositive is a stand-alone noun or an
appositive phrase, it enables the writer to better identify the subject being talked about without having to come up with a new sentence every time. This avoids needless digressions that may just impede the spontaneity and natural flow of the developing exposition.
Take a look at how appositives work in the following three sentences: “I gave
my very hardworking office assistant Alicia a well-deserved day off yesterday.” “Evelyn’s fiancé,
the jealous but caring type, took her on an extended out-of-town trip to Sagada in the Mountain Province.” “
A positively enchanting singer, Joanna has many admirers at the club where she performs.” “Eduardo,
the bright computer enthusiast, helped fix the laptop of his teacher Mrs. Alicia Santos.” “The two provincial boys,
adventurers with only a few hundred pesos between them, took the bus to Manila last night.”
On the other hand, an appositive phrase is an appositive together with the modifiers that come with it: “Taal Volcano,
a major Philippine tourist attraction because it is an active crater surrounded by a low-lying lake, has been spewing columns of ash intermittently for three weeks now.” Here, the proper noun “Taal Volcano” is modified by the 15-word appositive phrase “a major Philippine tourist attraction because it is an active crater surrounded by a low-lying lake.” By deftly providing relevant information about the nouns they modify, appositive phrases can be very effective in giving texture and depth to writing.
Keep in mind though that an appositive phrase is either essential or nonessential to the statement. It is
an essential or restrictive appositive when it narrows the meaning of the word it modifies and is needed to put the sentence in better context. As such, it is usually a set of words closely related to the noun being modified, in which case no commas are required to set it off from the rest of the sentence, as in “
The late rock singer Freddie Mercury has been hailed as the most electric and engaging singer in modern times.”
A non-essential or non-restrictive appositive, on the other hand, is not absolutely necessary to the meaning of a sentence; as such, it may be omitted without altering its basic meaning. Take a look at the non-essential appositive phrases in these two sentences: “Alicia’s sister,
a Philippine-born doctor, worked until her retirement as a senior anesthesiologist in a large hospital in the U.S. Midwest.” “The ‘Santacruzan,’
a colorful religious festival in the predominantly Roman Catholic country, is regularly held in many Philippine towns during the month of May.”
We can see that the two sentences above are complete and can stand by themselves even without the two appositive phrases that modify their respective subjects. Depending on their position in the sentence, such non-essential appositives must be set off from the rest of the sentence by one or two commas in the interest of clarity.
Non-essential appositive phrases have the same optional role in sentences, as in this example: “December,
usually the coldest month in tropical Philippines, is becoming more popular than June as the wedding month of choice.” We can take out the appositive phrase “usually the coldest month in tropical Philippines” and still get a clear idea from the context of the statement of what month it is these days that more and more Filipinos prefer to get married.
(Next week:
Some hard-and-fast rules on infinitive usage) April 28, 2022
This essay, 2095th of the series, appeared in the column “English Plain and Simple” by Jose A. Carillo in the Campus Press section of the April 21, 2022 Internet edition of The Manila Times
, ©2022 by the Manila Times Publishing Corp. All rights reserved.Read this essay online in
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Using appositives for more engaging writingVisit Jose Carillo’s English Forum, http://josecarilloforum.com. You can follow me on Facebook and Twitter and e-mail me at j8carillo@yahoo.com.
