Restrictive name

Question

https://blog.inkforall.com/appositiveThe writer Carleen is a Canadian national.   (restrictive)Is this sentence from the resource 'restrictive' regardless of the occupation or role.The student Carleen is a Canadian national: sounds awkward without the pause, yet grammatically it is the same as the writer example? And does the  'is a' structure effect its restrictiveness versus other structures.  If we are using any given proper name  with (is a) then I'd imagine the name is always restrictive, as we need to indentify who is doing what or what they are.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

panda blue 483Is this sentence from the resource 'restrictive' regardless of the occupation or role.

It depends.

panda blue 483The student Carleen is a Canadian national: sounds awkward without the pause, yet grammatically it is the same as the writer example?

Commas are not there because of any pause. They are a purely mechanical device to ease reading in ordinary writing. The sentence sounds awkward in any event because in "the student Carleen", "student" is too broad a designation and because "the student is a Canadian national" only works in some narrow context—the student as opposed to what?

panda blue 483 And does the 'is a' structure effect its restrictiveness versus other structures. If we are using any given proper name with (is a) then I'd imagine the name is always restrictive, as we need to indentify who is doing what or what they are.

Returning to the original sentence (The writer Carleen is a Canadian national.), the name is restrictive or not depending on context. Supposing she has become so famous that everybody calls her by her first name only, or that "Carleen" is a last name, without the commas, the name is restrictive, and the sentence means that the writer whose name is Carleen is Canadian. With the commas (The writer, Carleen, is a Canadian national.), you would have to have mentioned writing before, and in that case, the name would be non-restrictive, and the sentence would mean that the writer we are talking about is a Canadian, and her name happens to be Carleen.

CalifJim · Answer

Proper nouns (i.e., Carleen) are always restrictive as appositives for occupations.

Consider that "restrictive" means that the restricting word or words are necessary in order to specify exactly which entity (person, place, thing, ...) in the real world is being referred to, i.e., to specify the referent.

Obviously, given the number of writers in the world, the writer is not a very good word choice for picking out a specific person in the world. In order to know which writer is the referent, we restrict the concept of writer by adding the writer's name.

CJ

"is a" has nothing to do with the contrast between restrictive and non-restrictive components of sentences.

CJ

Restrictive name

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