Apposition and relation of noun phrases

Question

Hello there,I need help with the following question concerning the apposition of two noun phrases:Is the appositive as a second noun phrase adjacent to another one a separated noun phrasestanding on its own, or is it rather embedded in the first noun phrase as a postmodifier?In the sentence:"Donald Trump, President of the US, was elected in 2016", the noun phrase in italics is called an appositive.The two noun phrases, including the phrase "Donald Trump", are together "in apposition".Commas are put if the appositive is non-restrictive.I now just can´t manage to understand whether these two noun phrases are two completely separate ones, or whether this is a case of embedding of the appositive as a postmodifier.My second question is, whether noun phrases in apposition form together a singular subject, or whether they rather have to be analyzed as two distinct elements of the clause.

BillJ · Accepted Answer

[1] Donald Trump, President of the US, was elected in 2016.

[2] *President of the US was elected in 2016. (ungrammatical)

In [1] "President of the US" is not a supplementary (non-defining) appositive NP.

An appositive NP is defined as one which when substituted for the matrix NP (or supplementation) can yield a clause which is an entailment of the original. In other words, it can stand in for the whole NP (or supplementation) and still leave a grammatical sentence.

But bare role NPs, i.e. those without an article like "President of the US" in [1] cannot function as subject, and hence [2] is ungrammatical.

However, if an article is inserted as in [3], the NP "the President of the US" would be a supplementary (non-defining) appositive, since it can stand alone as the subject, as in [4]

[3] Donald Trump, the President of the US, was elected in 2016.

[4] The President of the US was elected in 2016.

anonymousMy second question is, whether noun phrases in apposition form together a singular subject, or whether they rather have to be analyzed as two distinct elements of the clause.

Supplementary (non-defining) appositives are not modifiers, not dependents of the NP that precedes them, and hence they do not combine with them to form a constituent, i.e. a single larger NP.

By contrast, integrated (defining) appositives are modifiers; they combine with the preceding noun to form a larger constituent, i.e. a larger NP, as in [5]:

[5] I went to see [the opera Carmen].

Apposition and relation of noun phrases

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions