Clauses

Question

please what is the difference between an appositive and a non restrictive clause

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Hello,

(1) An appositive is a word, a phrase (some words with no subject or verb), or a clause (another sentence) which is used to identify some noun in the sentence:

(a) If I were rich, I would buy one-hundred-year copies of The Times, the famous London newspaper.

(i) "the famous London newspaper" is called an appositive. It identifies "The Times." It is nonrestrictive (not necessary to the understanding of the sentence). Just some extra information for better identification.

(2) A nonrestrictive clause is a sentence (it has a subject & verb) that gives more identifying but NOT essential information.

(a) I love to read old copies of The Times, which was once the most powerful newspaper in the world.

(i) "which" = subject ( = The Times)

(ii) "was" = verb

(iii) which was once the most powerful newspaper in the world = nonrestrictive adjective clause that explains more about The Times. It is nonrestrictive because the information is interesting but not necessary.

(iv) Here is a sentence with a RESTRICTIVE clause:

Please get me a copy of The Times that was published in 1910.

(a) "that was published in 1910" is restrictive because it is necessary to the meaning of the sentence. If I said only, " Please get me a copy of The Times," you would probably think I wanted today's paper.

But I don't want today's. I want "that (a copy) was published in 1910.

***

One more example of an appositive:

English, the international language, is studied by millions of people:

(a) the international language = appositive.

(i) It refers back to English.

(ii) It further identifies English.

(iii) It is not necessary to the meaning of the sentence. That is why we use commas. The two commas mean that we can erase this information and the sentence will still keep its meaning.

Thank you.

Victor_amelkin · Answer

IMO, these two categories are orthogonal in some way:

1) An appositive may be either restrictive or nonrestrictive:

(i) My friend Bob is a doctor. (restrictive appositive)

(ii) The head of our department, Sarah, asked me to work at
weekends. (nonrestrictive appositive)

2) A nonrestrictive phrase should not necessarily be an appositive. For instance, in (ii) a nonrestrictive phrase "Bob" is in apposition, while in the following sentence the nonrestrictive phrase is not an appositive:

(iii) Jack, who's known me just for a couple of days, already
borrowed from me ten quid. (nonrestrictive relative clause)

If I'm wrong, I hope, some grammar geek will correct me.

--

Victor

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