Adjective and Adverb Appositives?

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LearningNerd  #265759  Tue, 12 Sep 06 05:31 AM

I've come across the term "adjective appositive" and "adverb appositive" a few times, and I'm just wondering if this is widely-used. Is it an incorrect description of a construction that should be called something else? I'm asking this because I always see appositives defined as nouns (or noun phrases/clauses).

Here are a couple examples:

"The fire, yellow and orange, warmed the room."  - adjective appositive

This page cached by Google calls this an adverb appositive: "The man shouted loudly, (which was) even frantically, to calm the crowd".

It explains, "Most appositive units can be considered nonrestrictive clauses with the relative pronoun and the verb deleted." I can see how an appositive can be seen as an elliptical nonrestrictive clause, but is there no other term for this usage of adjectives and adverbs? Perhaps you could even explain it as an elliptical participial phrase: "The fire, (being) yellow and orange, warmed the room." That doesn't work for the adverb appositive, though.

So, what are your thoughts? What would you call this and how would you explain it?

  
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Welkins2139  #265873  Tue, 12 Sep 06 11:04 AM

My thought is it does not matter what you put between commas, dashes, etc. because they are extra information. Without them, a sentence is still fine.  

  
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Inchoateknowledge  #265880  Tue, 12 Sep 06 11:43 AM

"I've come across the term "adjective appositive" and "adverb appositive" a few times, and I'm just wondering if this is widely-used. Is it an incorrect description of a construction that should be called something else? I'm asking this because I always see appositives defined as nouns (or noun phrases/clauses)."

They are not necessarily noun phrases.

they are phrases, clauses, either one or more words, and (further) explain or identify the noun (phrase) next to it 

Here are a couple examples:

"The fire, yellow and orange, warmed the room."  - adjective appositive Yes.

This page cached by Google calls this an adverb appositive: "The man shouted loudly, (which was) even frantically, to calm the crowd". Yes.

It explains, "Most appositive units can be considered nonrestrictive clauses with the relative pronoun and the verb deleted."

This is not true.

My sister who died in a car accident last week is... .the appositive here is a non-restrictive relative clause. It says I have now the same but one number of sisters.

My sister, who died... , restrictive rc, comma is needed. I used to have only one sister. The reative clause (parenthetical element) is set off by a set of commas.

 I can see how an appositive can be seen as an elliptical nonrestrictive clause, but is there no other term for this usage of adjectives and adverbs?

Appositives are not always ellipted non restrictive clauses!

 Perhaps you could even explain it as an elliptical participial phrase: "The fire, (being) yellow and orange, warmed the room." That doesn't work for the adverb appositive, though.

"(being) yellow and orange" may be interpreted as an ellipted participle phrase (adjectival) in appositive function.

So, what are your thoughts? What would you call this and how would you explain it?

appositives are modifiers.

  
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Welkins2139  #265956  Tue, 12 Sep 06 03:33 PM
 Inchoateknowledge wrote:

"This page cached by Google calls this an adverb appositive: "The man shouted loudly, (which was) even frantically, to calm the crowd". Yes.

That is not correct. In my knowledge, there is no such things called adverb appositive. 

Question:

How can an adverb modify a noun?  An adverb modifies adjective or adverb.  

This is not true.

My sister who died in a car accident last week is... .the appositive here is a non-restrictive relative clause. It says I have now the same but one number of sisters.

That is not a non-restrictive clause. That is a restrctive clause. You might be right he has more than one sister, though.  

My sister, who died... , restrictive rc, comma is needed. I used to have only one sister. The reative clause (parenthetical element) is set off by a set of commas.

That is a non restictive clause. I think he only has one sister in the sentence with using non restricve clause.  

  
Marius Hancu  #266007  Tue, 12 Sep 06 05:22 PM
 Welkins2139 wrote:

In my knowledge, there is no such things called adverb appositive. 

An adverb modifies adjective or adverb.

I think you need to correct the above to:

To my knowledge, there is no such thing as an adverb appositive.
An adverb modifies an adjective or an adverb.

  
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Inchoateknowledge  #266062  Tue, 12 Sep 06 07:02 PM
 Welkins2139 wrote:
 Inchoateknowledge wrote:

"This page cached by Google calls this an adverb appositive: "The man shouted loudly, (which was) even frantically, to calm the crowd". Yes.

That is not correct. In my knowledge, there is no such things called adverb appositive. 

Question:

How can an adverb modify a noun?  An adverb modifies adjective or adverb.  

This is not true.

My sister who died in a car accident last week is... .the appositive here is a non-restrictive relative clause. It says I have now the same but one number of sisters.

That is not a non-restrictive clause. That is a restrctive clause. You might be right he has more than one sister, though.  

My sister, who died... , restrictive rc, comma is needed. I used to have only one sister. The reative clause (parenthetical element) is set off by a set of commas.

That is a non restictive clause. I think he only has one sister in the sentence with using non restricve clause.  

Apposition

Grammar. a syntactic relation between expressions, usually consecutive, that have the same function and the same relation to other elements in the sentence, the second expression identifying or supplementing the first. In Washington, our first president, the phrase our first president is in apposition with Washington.

adverb appositive modifies an adverb

The man shouted loudly, (which was) even frantically, to calm the crowd". Yes

  
Inchoateknowledge  #266063  Tue, 12 Sep 06 07:03 PM
 Welkins2139 wrote:
 Inchoateknowledge wrote:

"This page cached by Google calls this an adverb appositive: "The man shouted loudly, (which was) even frantically, to calm the crowd". Yes.

That is not correct. In my knowledge, there is no such things called adverb appositive. 

Question:

How can an adverb modify a noun?  An adverb modifies adjective or adverb.  

This is not true.

My sister who died in a car accident last week is... .the appositive here is a non-restrictive relative clause. It says I have now the same but one number of sisters.

That is not a non-restrictive clause. That is a restrctive clause. You might be right he has more than one sister, though.  

My sister, who died... , restrictive rc, comma is needed. I used to have only one sister. The reative clause (parenthetical element) is set off by a set of commas.

That is a non restictive clause. I think he only has one sister in the sentence with using non restricve clause.  

Apposition

Grammar. a syntactic relation between expressions, usually consecutive, that have the same function and the same relation to other elements in the sentence, the second expression identifying or supplementing the first. In Washington, our first president, the phrase our first president is in apposition with Washington.

adverb appositive modifies an adverb

The man shouted loudly, (which was) even frantically, to calm the crowd". Yes

  
Welkins2139  #266089  Tue, 12 Sep 06 08:20 PM

 " (which was) even frantically" is not an adverb clause. It is an adjective clause.

  
Inchoateknowledge  #266099  Tue, 12 Sep 06 08:34 PM
 Welkins2139 wrote:

 " (which was) even frantically" is not an adverb clause. It is an adjective clause.

it is not a clause, let alone an adjectival clause

  
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