Appositive Phrases

Mrs. HensonEnglish III AP

* Adapted from Sentence Composing for High School Students by Don Killgallon

Overview

• Efficient way to combine related ideas to one sentence.

• Noun phrases• Used to identify adjacent nouns or pronouns• Can occur as:– Sentence Openers– Subject-Verb Split– Sentence Closers

Important!!

• Appositives serve as either an adjective in a sentence.

• Just as with modifiers, appositive phrases MUST be placed in close proximity to the item being modified.

• If not placed properly, your sentence will have reference problems and be confusing to your reader!!!

ModelsWithout Appositives• It went away slowly.

• That night in the south upstairs chamber Emmett lay in a kind of trance.

With Appositives• It went away slowly, that feeling

of disappointment that came sharply after the thrill that made his shoulders ache.

• Ernest Hemingway, “Big Two-Hearted River: Part I”

• That night in the south upstairs chamber, a hot little room where a full-leafed chinaberry tree shut all the air from the single window, Emmett lay in a kind of trance.

• Jessamyn West, “A Time of Learning”

Placement of Appositive Phrases• Sentence Openers– A balding, smooth-faced man, he could have been

anywhere between forty and sixty.– Harper Lee, To Kill A Mockingbird

• Subject-Verb Splits– A man, a weary old pensioner with a dirty head and

a stained brown corduroy waistcoat, appeared at the door of a small gate lodge.

– Brian Moore, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne

• Sentence Closers– Hour after hour he stood there, silent, motionless, a

shadow carved in ebony and moonlight.– James V Marshall, Walkabout

Unscrambling #1

A. struggled as usualB. sheC. to maintain her calm,

composed, friendly bearing

D. a sort of mask she wore all over her body

She struggled as usual to maintain her calm, composed, friendly bearing, a sort of mask she wore all over body.

-D. H. Lawrence, “The Blind Man”

Unscrambling #2

A. the tyrannosaurB. with huge flaring

nostrilsC. a long snuggling

inhalation that fluttered Baselton’s trouser legs

D. gave Baselton a smell

With huge flaring nostrils, the tyrannosaur gave Baselton a smell, a long snuffling inhalation that fluttered Baselton’s trouser legs.

-Michael Crichton, The Lost World

Unscrambling #3A. with the butt of a

teamster’s whipB. once Enoch BentleyC. old Tom BentleyD. struck his fatherE. and the old man seemed

likely to dieF. the older one of the boys

Once Enoch Bentley, the older one of the boys, struck his father, old Tom Bentley, with the butt of a teamster’s whip, and the old man seemed likely to die.

Winesburg, Ohio

Appositives Practice

• Practice 2– Unscramble each set of

sentence parts to create sentences which follow the model.

– Write 1 sentence of your own imitating the first model and each of the sentences found in the “Other Models” section.

– A total of 6 sentences

• Practice 3– Combine each set of

sentence parts into 1 sentence which imitates the model.

– Then write 1 sentence of your own imitating each of the models.

– A total of 8 sentences