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LearningNerd Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

Adjective and Adverb Appositives?

I've come across the term "adjective appositive" and "adverb appositive" a few times, and I'm just wondering if this is widely-used. Is it an incorrect description of a construction that should be called something else? I'm asking this because I always see appositives defined as nouns (or noun phrases/clauses).

Here are a couple examples:

"The fire, yellow and orange, warmed the room." - adjective appositive

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:1kGWevcFtY0J:www.aolsvc.worldbook.aol.com/wb/Article%3Fid%3Dar026760+%22adjective+appositive%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=17 cached by Google calls this an adverb appositive: "The man shouted loudly, (which was) even frantically, to calm the crowd".

It explains, "Most appositive units can be considered nonrestrictive clauses with the relative pronoun and the verb deleted." I can see how an appositive can be seen as an elliptical nonrestrictive clause, but is there no other term for this usage of adjectives and adverbs? Perhaps you could even explain it as an elliptical participial phrase: "The fire, (being) yellow and orange, warmed the room." That doesn't work for the adverb appositive, though.

So, what are your thoughts? What would you call this and how would you explain it?
  

Top answer

My thought is it does not matter what you put between commas, dashes, etc. because they are extra information. Without them, a sentence is still fine.

— Welkins2139

  • My thought is it does not matter what you put between commas, dashes, etc.
  • because they are extra information.
  • Without them, a sentence is still fine.
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31 Answers
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My thought is it does not matter what you put between commas, dashes, etc. because they are extra information. Without them, a sentence is still fine.
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"I've come across the term "adjective appositive" and "adverb appositive" a few times, and I'm just wondering if this is widely-used. Is it an incorrect description of a construction that should be called something else? I'm asking this because I always see appositives defined as nouns (or noun phrases/clauses)."

They are not necessarily noun phrases.
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Inchoateknowledge
"This page cached by Google calls this an adverb appositive: "The man shouted loudly, (which was) even frantically, to calm the crowd".
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Welkins2139
In my knowledge, there is no such things called adverb appositive.

An adverb modifies adjective or adverb.

I think you need to correct the above to:

To my knowledge, there is no such thing as an adverb appositive.
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Welkins2139
Inchoateknowledge
"This page cached by Google calls this an adverb appositive: "The man shouted loudly, (which was) even franticall
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Welkins2139
Inchoateknowledge
"This page cached by Google calls this an adverb appositive: "The man shouted loudly, (which was) even franticall
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" (which was) even frantically" is not an adverb clause. It is an adjective clause.
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Welkins2139
" (which was) even frantically" is not an adverb clause. It is an adjective clause.

it is not a clause, let alone an adjectival clause
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Inchoateknowledge
Welkins2139
" (which was) even frantically" is not an adverb clause. It is an adjective clause.

it is not a clause, let alone an adjectival clause

For example. The dog which was even frantically barked at me. Which clause as adjective is modified the dog.
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Thanks for your replies! I can see this is an area of debate. Well, now I understand that appositives aren't necessarily nouns or noun phrases.

The adjective appositive seems to make sense, but I think the so-called "adverb appositive" is an incorrect term. After all, an appositive renames or gives more information about a noun; adverbs can't modify nouns. But then is there another term f
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