Appositives

Question

How do I parse (what do I call) a noun phrase like:

six maids milking
the sun shining
men returning home to quarrel with their wives
ringers getting about the Doors of Such churches as have a Peal of Bells - ?

Are they noun phrases? I have been advised to think of them as appositives, but have failed to find any discussion of the appositive, either contemporary or historical.

My question is a historical one. I am a historian, attempting to analysis a text from the 1750s that consists almost entirely of appositives (if that's what they are). I want to be able to describe how it works, and maybe did work, to provoke a particulat kind of perception and imagining. (The last above is from the text itself).

I should be so grateful for any help you can give me. (The terms `appositive' and `apposition' do not appear in the work of any eighteenth-century language theorist that I have been able to look at.)

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

How do I parse (what do I call) a noun phrase like:

six maids milking

the sun shining

men returning home to quarrel with their wives

ringers getting about the Doors of Such churches as have a Peal of Bells - ?

Are they noun phrases? Yes, they are. In everyday modern English, we more commonly put the adjectival part in front of the noun when the adjectival part is short. eg

six milking maids

the shining sun

We also commonly put commas after such phrases in a list. But in earlier times, the approach to punctuation (and to the use of capitals, as you can see) was looser.

I have been advised to think of them as appositives, but have failed to find any discussion of the appositive, either contemporary or historical.

I'd hesitate to call this 'apposition', because the term usually refers to two or more nouns or phrases where the second qualifies or explains the first.

eg Charles, Prince of Wales, husband of camilla

eg My friend, Tom

But the term 'apposition' is not usually applied to a list, like 'I need bread, milk and meat'.

What you are dealing with is a list.

My question is a historical one. I am a historian, attempting to analysis a text from the 1750s that consists almost entirely of appositives (if that's what they are). I want to be able to describe how it works, and maybe did work, to provoke a particulat kind of perception and imagining. (The last above is from the text itself).

I should be so grateful for any help you can give me. (The terms `appositive' and `apposition' do not appear in the work of any eighteenth-century language theorist that I have been able to look at.)

Your ditty reminds me of 'The Twelve Days of Christmas', which is a good example of a list.
On the twelfth day of Christmas,
my true love sent to me
Twelve drummers drumming,
Eleven pipers piping,
Ten lords a-leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree!

Best wishes, Clive

Anonymous · Answer

Dear Clive

Thank you so much. All I needed was a vocabulary for describing these noun phrases, and you've given me one! Very grateful. Now I can get on with describing how they work in the text I'm considering (which incidentally, if you're interested, is Anon., Low-life; or, One Half of the World Knows Not How the Other Half Lives, 3rd edn, London, 1764). And your discussion of the list is more than helpful. There's a lot of work on listing in literary studies and applied linguistics, and now I can think with this. Thank you again.

Yes. `A Partridge in a Pear Tree', many hymns and a lot of 18C verse for children uses this structure.

All best wishes

Carolyn

Appositives

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