My Thoughts On Appositives

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Essy moonlight11
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My Thoughts On Appositives

Post by Essy moonlight11 »

This is to clarify what I know about appositives because I have been marked off severally on this and I hoped maybe we could clear up the confusion.

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. For example:

1. Mrs. Brown, the retired teacher, is coming to the school.
2. Tom the cat loves Jerry the mouse.
3. The car, the black Mercedes, is very classy.

In the above sentences, "the retired teacher", "the cat" and "the mouse", and "the black Mercedes" are the appositives to "Mrs Brown", "Tom" and "Jerry", and "the car".

The confusion now, majorly, comes with commas — when they should be used and when they should be omitted. As you can see, I have used a comma before and after some appositives but not others.

One general rule of thumb, not only for appositives, is that parentheses/nonessential information/added infomation should be set off by commas, one before and another after. Another rule is that any word or phrase that interrupts a sentence should be set off by commas, which I think parentheses naturally do.
Rule: When an appositive is essential to the meaning of the noun it belongs to, don't use commas. When the noun preceding the appositive provides sufficient identification on its own, use commas around the appositive.

https://www.grammarbook.com/blog/commas ... alifornia.
If the appositive is essential to the meaning of the phrase then we don't have commas

https://prowritingaid.com/grammar/10080 ... appositive

Where the subjectivity and confusion comes, however, is what exactly is essential and what is not. For example, in the first sentence, there could be other Mrs. Brown's, and, therefore, "the retired teacher" could be mandatory to set her apart, requiring no commas. Also, it could just be another added information hence necessitating the commas. This same argument can apply to all the remaining examples.

But you'll notice that "the black Mercedes" clearly interrupts the sentence, thereby making the commas necessary, but I think the same argument above can be applied here: what if the information was necessary, even though it does interfere with the sentence?

All I'm trying to point out is that there is a whole lot of gray areas with appositives — especially, I think, what is essential or nonessential, generally. What do you think about this?
Last edited by Essy moonlight11 on 16 Jun 2022, 22:18, edited 1 time in total.
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Jen Nghishitende
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Post by Jen Nghishitende »

Really interesting, thanks for this, something to think about!
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MsH2k
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Post by MsH2k »

Essy moonlight11 wrote: 16 Jun 2022, 22:06 All I'm trying to point out is that there is a whole lot of gray areas with appositives — especially, I think, what is essential or nonessential, generally. What do you think about this?
I agree. There are times when the writer’s intent and the context determine if something is essential or not. For instance, with the first example, I would consider the retired teacher to be nonessential unless there were others in the context who could have been referred to as Mrs. Brown and the intent was to specify which one was coming to the school.

I have been successful in requesting an editor recheck when my comma usage supported my intent. If you request a recheck, include the reference (as you have done above) and also explain why you included or excluded commas in that case.

I hope my 2 cents was helpful! :twocents-mytwocents:
"Knowing what must be done does away with fear."
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kipper_
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Post by kipper_ »

MsH2k wrote: 17 Jun 2022, 15:27 There are times when the writer’s intent and the context determine if something is essential or not.
This. Appositive use is a bit subjective. However, the best guide I've found is to determine if there is both a similarity and a difference or only a difference within a group. If there is both similarity and difference, modifiers are helpful. If there is only a difference, it's probably not necessary to add modifiers. Ask yourself: Does the description you're contemplating modification for introduce information that is necessary to set apart the group, or can it stand apart on its own?

Let's use your second example for some experimentation.

Argument for no modifiers:

Assume that there are multiple species within the scene. There is a cat, a mouse, a toad, a firefly, and a beaver. Each species is a separate entity, and the animals do not have similarities (like fur color). Each species is a necessary description to denote character separation, but because there is only a difference (species) and no similarity (like fur color), you don't need to set apart the description with commas. Therefore, we can reliably believe that a modifier is not necessary, because adding commas does not add necessary information to set apart the group. The species variance in and of itself creates separation.

Example: "Tom the cat loves Jerry the mouse."

Argument for adding modifiers:

Say that there are multiple cats of different colors in the scene you're describing. Not only is there a black cat, but there is also an orange cat and a calico cat. Now, we have both a similarity (species) and a difference (fur color). The modifiers are necessary to denote separation within the group. We need to clarify for the reader that a certain cat with a certain color is the one that loves Jerry.

So you would write: "Tom, the black cat, loves Jerry the mouse."

Of course, flow and stylistic choices are also important, as mentioned by other users. Another reason you may forgo modifiers is if the description is part of the name. If you frequently refer to Tom in the book as "Tom the cat," then you don't want to use a modifier since it is not additional--it's a necessary part of his title. Hopefully that helps!
Last edited by kipper_ on 01 Sep 2022, 15:50, edited 1 time in total.
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