I’m Such an Optimist, I’m Appositive (Part II)

Which piece of information should go in the appositive?


When I write a sentence with a non-defining adjective clause, I have to decide which information should be in the main clause and which information should be in the adjective clause.  I ask myself a simple question.  What is the most important piece of information?  What do I want the reader to remember most?  What information should I emphasize?  (Each of these is basically the same question worded differently, in case you were thinking “Hey!  You said ONE question!”)  For example:

• Baseball, which is called the National Pastime, was played as early as the Civil War.
• Baseball, which was played as early as the Civil War, is called the National Pastime.

Both of these sentences have the same information, but the first sentence emphasizes the history of baseball (played during the Civil War) because that is the main clause.  Conversely, the second sentence emphasizes the importance of baseball in the U.S. (the National Pastime).  This is the same way you decide which noun should be the appositive (the second noun in the pair).  For example, if I am writing about my kids, their names and their ages, I have two choices:

• My older son, Kai, is almost 16 and my younger son, Skyler, is 18 months old.
• Kai, my older son, is almost 16 and Skyler, my younger son, is 18 months old.

Both of these sentences are grammatically correct, but I prefer the first one.  I am talking about their ages, so making the words older and younger part of the main noun makes more sense.  Their names are important, but not as important in this case.  There is also an idea that I don’t know the person I am talking well, like the woman sitting next to me on an airplane.  We are enjoying a nice conversation, but once the plane lands, she won’t remember my kids’ names, just like I will remember that she has three dogs (I love dogs.), but I’ll never remember her dogs' names, either.  On the other hand:

• My older son, Kai, loves sports while my younger son, Skyler, is more of a musician.
• Kai, my older son, loves sports while Skyler, my younger son, is more of a musician.

In this case, I prefer putting the name first and their “ranking” in apposition.  This is because I am telling my Facebook friends about my kids’ interests, but I’m also reminding them of their “position” in case they forgot or didn’t know.  It’s not that important, though.  (I love them both equally, until one of them becomes a multi-millionaire and I can retire on their money.)


What are appositives used for?


Most commonly, appositives are used with people.  This is a way to give both a person’s name and their title.  In this case, my advice for organization is to put the title first and the name in apposition, unless of course, you have a reason to go the other way.  Final decision is always yours.  (Students: Remember, however, that I am the one who decides your grade, so for you, final decision is MINE!)  For example:

• the President of the United States, Barack Obama
• the captain of the New York Yankees, Derek Jeter
• the leader of the Confederate Army, Robert E. Lee

Another common usage is to define something, especially foreign words or technical terms.  For example:

• bento, a Japanese style boxed lunch
• quinceañera, a fifteenth birthday party given for girls in many Latin American cultures
• the modem, the hardware that connects your computer to the Internet
• a sextant, the tool used by early explorers to figure out how far north or south they were

When the definition is first and the term is second, you should add the conjunction or.  (Commas before and after are very important)

• Korean-style dumplings, or man-doo,
• the outrigger of a Hawaiian racing canoe, or ama,
• the computer that stores a web page, or server,
• the ball accidentally going forward in rugby, or knock-on,

Another use of an appositive is to show the acronym* of a group of words.  (Acronyms are often preceded by or put inside parentheses.)  For example:

• the United Nations, or UN,
• the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI)
• the University of Southern California (USC)

Finally, appositives can be used to give lists of things that are part of the category described by the original noun.  The original noun is followed by a colon.

• the three major professional leagues in the U.S.: the NFL, the NBA and MLB
• the four seasons: spring, summer, fall and winter
• two of my all-time favorite bands: Rush and KISS

Another way to punctuate appositives is with a dash, both before and after the appositive.  (A dash is made by putting two hyphens together.  There should be no space either before or after the dash.

• two of my all-time favorite bands–Rush and KISS
• bento–a Japanese-style boxed lunch
• when the ball accidentally goes forward in rugby–a knock-on

A more advanced usage of appositives that I found is when you want to give several detailed descriptions of one noun.  I found this good example in the book Over the Edge of the Earth.   (BTW - that is an apposition.)

• Magellan’s insistence on a ten-year exclusive on voyages to the Spice Islands appeared preposterous in a fast-changing world, but he was concerned that Spain would send duplicate expeditions as soon as his was out of sight of land, expeditions guided by his theories and secrets, expeditions that might succeed if he failed.

The original noun that is followed by the appositives is expeditions.  This is followed by two more uses of the word expeditions, each of which is followed by an adjective clause.  Both of these refer back to the original word expedition.  (Notice: No connecting words in front.)


Here are some of the more interesting appositives I’ve found.

• Magellan sent word to the recalcitrant chieftains that if they did not convert immediately and swear allegiance to King Charles, he would confiscate their property, a European concept that was nearly meaningless to the islanders, and he vowed to punish them with death, a threat they understood but chose to ignore.  (Over the Edge of the Earth)

In this sentence there are two appositives.  The first appositive is a European concept.  This concept involves an action, so technically the appositive is connected to a gerund, which is the “noun” form of a verb.  (The original sentence the appositive comes from is: Confiscating property is a European concept.)  The second appositive, a threat, is very similar.  The original sentence that the appositive comes from is: Punishing them with death was a threat they understood....

• Meanwhile, Seville’s titled oligarchy fattened itself with income derived from leasing lands to farmers or cashed in on their titles and prestige to engage in commercial pursuits: importing wine, oil, and soap.  (Over the Edge of the World)

In this case, the original noun is followed by a gerund phrase in apposition.  The pursuits of Seville’s titled oligarchy were importing wine, oil and soap.

• Then Stephanopoulos asked about his association with William Ayers, a former member of the Weather Underground (a group that had bombed the Pentagon and the Capitol in the early seventies), who lived in Obama’s neighborhood in Chicago and with whom he was said to be friendly.  (Game Change)

This one has an appositive inside an appositive.  The first appositive, which describes William Ayers, is a former member of the Weather Underground.  This is followed by a second appositive, in parentheses, that defines the Weather Underground, which was a group that bombed the Pentagon...  I think this one is especially cool.

• The Bird told people that he was a refugee from Tokyo whose relatives were all dead, a story that, in postwar Japan, was as common as white rice.  (Unbroken)

This last example involves a noun clause.  The appositive is the noun story.  The story was that the Bird was a refugee from Tokyo whose relatives were dead.


In conclusion, appositives are very common in written English and serve many purposes.  Most appositives are easy to find and fairly easy to use.  However, as I’ve discovered during my little bit of research, appositives come in all shapes and sizes.  (Sometimes appositives can come before the noun, too.  Ask me about that later.)  They all have one common denominator: appositives are all based around nouns.  They can be in the form of gerunds, or noun clauses or even infinitives.  They can be followed by long, descriptive adjective clauses.  The subject of the sentence can be described by an appositive at the end of the sentence.  When you go appositive hunting, there’s no telling what you will find.


However, every appositive I found was discovered the same way.  I found a noun that didn’t seem to be connected to anything else.


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*An acronym is made when you take the first letter of each word in a name and make an abbreviation, like JFK for John F. Kennedy.