Are these two adjective appositives? Thanks.

Question

1)Venus Williams assured the victory over her exhausted opponent, who slumped tothe ground, unable to attempt a return.2)The students ran out of the classroom the moment the bell rang, eager to escapethe hell of their grammar lesson.In these two sentences, are the words in bold adjective appositives? If not, what are they?They seem to be adjective appositives, but they are not placed closely to the word they modify.Thanks for your help!

Avangi · Accepted Answer

I would say so. The first one seems close enough to "who."

In the second one, if the phrase were short ("eager to escape") it could well be placed after it's antecedent.
"The students, eager to escape, ran out etc."
But being quite long, its early placement would destroy the impetus of the action.

I have to admire your tenacity on the appositive issue. You may stir up some interest in it yet!

Eddie88 · Answer

Cheers, Avangi.

Haha, yes, i seem to be insistent with this. I've been reading about the many free modifiers, such as this, because I always come across sentences that don't flow due to the non-restrictive modifiers placed throughout. I had no understaning of this style of writing- where phrases are just randomly placed throughout a sentence which prevent flow. I was aware of them, but I din't know how to use them; that is, when can and can't a phrase just be joined to a sentence with comma. So I searched the web. I've found a lot of the answers, although I must admit, I rarely will find times to use this style myself.

One thing I read was that an a appositive exists by omitting the pronoun and linking verb, so I suppose everytime one spots adjecctives or nouns placed in a sentence like above, one knows it is most likely to be appositives. What would you say they would be if they were not placed close enough to the noun to be classified as an appositive, however?

Cheers.

Avangi · Answer

Eddie88 What would you say they would be if they were not placed close enough to the noun to be classified as an appositive, however?

Mistakes?

Eddie88 · Answer

I do see this style, however, by credible authors of fictional books, but I suppose there is more flexibility in this style of writing.

I think an adjective as a free modifier (one spearated by commas from the main clause) can exist afar from the word it modifies, as long as there is no confusion about what it modifies. Or do you disagree with this?

And what about adverb appositives. A post on this forum discussed this term. Although this term may not exist, I suppose the structure can- just called something else.

I walked home with my friends, slowly and quietly.

It sort of functions like an appostive, but it modifies the verb instead. Obviously the phrase would be better preceding the noun, but for the sake of the question...

Do you know what the actual name for this phrase would be? Just so I can search for it... Perhaps it is just an unbound (free) modifier...

Cheers, Avangi.

Eddie88 · Answer

I do see this style, however, by credible authors of fictional books, but I suppose there is more flexibility in this style of writing.

I think an adjective as a free modifier (one spearated by commas from the main clause) can exist afar from the word it modifies, as long as there is no confusion about what it modifies. Or do you disagree with this?

And what about adverb appositives. A post on this forum discussed this term. Although this term may not exist, I suppose the structure can- just called something else.

I walked home with my friends, slowly and quietly.

It sort of functions like an appostive, but it modifies the verb instead. Obviously the phrase would be better preceding the noun, but for the sake of the question...

Do you know what the actual name for this phrase would be? Just so I can search for it... Perhaps it is just an unbound (free) modifier...

Cheers, Avangi.

Avangi · Answer

My Am. Htg. dictionary definition of "appositive" gives me the impression that both the appositive and the word or phrase it represents must be nouns or noun phrases. If this is true, the appositive can have only an adjectival function.

I walked home with my friends, slowly and quietly. I have no problem with this usage. I think they're just ****** adverbs.

How does an electron come to be a free electron?

How far away must a modifier be to be considered unbound?

When I first joined this site I was astounded to hear about words "modiying the whole sentence." Now I simply accept that there are many ways of looking at things.

I agree that your blue example is a narrative style. But I've seen things called "essays" in which it would be used with impunity.

There's no question in my mind that "slowly" and "quietly" modify "walked." Others may have a different approach.

Perhaps someday we can collaborate on a manual in which we rename everything. We can have free verbs and finite verbals and unbound appositives.

Avangi · Answer

Edit. I think I got sucked in here. We're asking the wrong question. When you talk about "adjective appositives" I assume you use the term advisedly.

When I look at what I wrote, I remember that the appositive is the grammatical equivalent of the word or phrase it represents.

So even though the appositive may be said to give us more information about the noun or noun phrase it represents - and therefore modifies it in the generic sense, can we say that it modifies it in the grammatical sense? Can we call it "adjectival" in the grammatical sense.

I think there's a conflict in definitions here. Can a noun which is the grammatical equivalent of another noun be called adjectival?

We just have to ask the man who made up the names.

Avangi · Answer

Edit.

Most Google references for "adjective appositive" are not using it as a term, but a few are:

http://reference.howstuffworks.com/apposition-encyclopedia.htm

"The crowd, (which was) anxious to escape danger, began to panic" is an adjective appositive.

Avangi · Answer

Edit.  I note that "adverb appositive" is also recognized.

Eddie88 · Answer

We are getting somewhere.

I had a read of that site; it was helpful thanks. It does indeed include adverbs, interestingly enough.

So I gather you are not one who is familiar with the terms free and bound modifier. Or did I just misunderstand you? Anyway, a free modifier is always separated from the matrix clause by commas, sometime en-dashes. When I see phrases like the ones we have been discussing, they do appear to be adjective appositives and adverb appositives; but they often aren't next to the word they modify, and almost every explanation I have come across states that an appositive stands next to the word it modifies.

So perhaps these adjective and adverbs are not appositives and are simply just adjectives or adverbs. Generally however, adjectives like this are bound to the word they modify:

The angry, upset old man raised his fists.

The old man raised his fists, angry and upset.---Here it is not.

The angry old man raised his fists, indignant for what the waiters had served him.

Would you say the words in bold are an adjective appositive or just an adjective phrase?

The angry old (was) indignant for ...

I think it is just an adjective phrase because it doesn't seem to omit the pronoun 'who' What do you think?

Cheers, Avangi.

Are these two adjective appositives? Thanks.

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