Appositive Phrases

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Appositive Phrases

• Mrs. Henson
• English III AP
• Adapted from Sentence Composing for High School
  Students by Don Killgallon

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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

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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!!!

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Models

• Without Appositives

• With Appositives

• It went away slowly.
• That night in the south upstairs chamber Emmett
  lay in a kind of trance.

• 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

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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

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Unscrambling 1

1. struggled as usual
2. she
3. to maintain her calm, composed, friendly bearing
4. 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

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Unscrambling 2

1. the tyrannosaur
2. with huge flaring nostrils
3. a long snuggling inhalation that fluttered
   Baseltons trouser legs
4. gave Baselton a smell

• With huge flaring nostrils, the tyrannosaur gave
  Baselton a smell, a long snuffling inhalation
  that fluttered Baseltons trouser legs.
• -Michael Crichton, The Lost World

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Unscrambling 3

1. with the butt of a teamsters whip
2. once Enoch Bentley
3. old Tom Bentley
4. struck his father
5. and the old man seemed likely to die
6. 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 teamsters whip, and the old man seemed
  likely to die.
• Winesburg, Ohio

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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