GMAT Grammar: Appositive Modifiers
A Beat The GMAT student recently asked me to write an article about a particular grammar concept: an appositive. (An appositive is a type of modifier.) As requested, here you go: an entire article about appositives!
What is an Appositive?
An appositive is a type of modifier. It can be a single word or a phrase (a group of words). An appositive is placed next to some other word or phrase and is a synonym of or possible replacement for that other word or phrase. It usually does not include the typical introductory words for other modifiers (such as which). Heres an example:
Her dog, a golden retriever, is very cute.
In this example, the core of the sentence is her dog is very cute. The phrase a golden retriever is a modifier; it is extra information that is not part of the core. In this case, its a noun modifier, because its modifying the noun dog and, even more specifically, its an appositive noun modifier because a golden retriever is a synonym or possible replacement for the word dog. For example, we could change the sentence to read:
Her golden retriever is very cute.
(Note: we cant always simply take the appositive in the given form and substitute it straight in for the noun it modifies. This is just an example showing that we can do that sometimes.)
Most of the time, an appositive modifier is a noun modifier, though sometimes an appositive can be another type of modifier, such as a verb modifier. For example:
She attempted to neutralize, or render harmless, the heat of the boiling water she spilled on her foot.
In this example, the appositive is or render harmless and it is modifying the verb neutralize. Although this appositive is not a noun modifier, it does still follows the rules for an appositive: it modifies something else in the sentence and it is a synonym of or possible replacement for the word that it is modifying.
Non-Essential Appositives
Appositives (and other modifiers) can be essential to the meaning of the sentence; if you remove an essential modifier, the meaning of the sentence may become ambiguous or may actually change. Appositives (and other modifiers) can also be non-essential to the meaning of the sentence; they represent extra information that, if removed, would not change the fundamental meaning of the core of the sentence. Non-essential appositives must be set off from the rest of the sentence by some form of punctuation: commas, dashes, or a colon. Essential appositives are not set off from the rest of the sentence by commas. The GMAT may test punctuation related to non-essential appositives but typically does not test essential appositives.
For example, this excerpt from Sentence Correction problem number 110 from The Official Guide for GMAT Review 11th Edition (OG11) shows a non-essential appositive in an incorrect answer choice:
In June of 1987, The Bridge of Trinquetaille, Vincent van Gogh's view of an iron bridge over the Rhone sold for $20.2 million
The phrase Vincent van Goghs view of an iron bridge over the Rhone is an appositive; the words are a non-essential description of the painting The Bridge of Trinquetaille. (If we removed the words, we would not affect the meaning of the core sentence.) In the above incorrect example, there is a comma just before the non-essential appositive starts, but there is no comma at the end of the appositive. The correct answer, also found in OG11, fixes this error:
In June of 1987, The Bridge of Trinquetaille, Vincent van Gogh's view of an iron bridge over the Rhone, was sold for $20.2 million
Placement of an Appositive
In the examples we have seen so far, the appositive is placed immediately after the word it is modifying. This is not, however, the only way in which an appositive can be placed.
First, it is possible for an appositive to be placed before the word or phrase that it modifies. For example, this excerpt from Sentence Correction problem number 72 from The Official Guide for GMAT Review 11th Edition (OG11) shows an appositive placed before the word that it modifies:
Architects and stonemasons, the Maya built
Architects and stonemasons represents a non-essential appositive, modifying the noun Maya. It is correctly set off from the main clause by a comma.
It is also possible for an appositive to modify an entire preceding noun phrase, rather than only the specific noun that it touches directly. For example, this excerpt from Sentence Correction problem number 113 from The Official Guide for Verbal Review 2nd Edition (VR2, p. 267) shows the problematic placement of a prepositional phrase modifier (not an appositive):
In A.D. 391, resulting from the destruction of the largest library of the ancient world at Alexandria,
According to the explanation for this problem, found on page 322 of VR2:
The largest library of the ancient world at Alexandria is both cumbersome and ambiguous because it suggests that the ancient world was located at (and only at) Alexandria.
In other words, this noun modifier in the form of the prepositional phrase at Alexandria refers only to the noun world, immediately preceding the modifier. The correct answer, found on page 267 of VR2, rephrases this part of the sentence:
In A.D. 391, as a result of the destruction of the library at Alexandria, the largest of the ancient world,
The noun modifier the largest of the ancient world is now in the form of an appositive. Logically, of course, it should refer to the noun library, but that noun is not the noun immediately preceding the appositive. Rather, the noun Alexandria immediately precedes the appositive. The VR2 explanation for this problem goes on to say that this placement is acceptable:
This problem is best corrected by breaking the series of phrases into two distinct parts: the library at Alexandria, the largest of the ancient world. Here, the second phrase clearly modifies the first.
In other words, the second phrase, the appositive, is allowed to modify the entire first phrase. It does not have to modify only the immediately preceding noun.
Takeaways
What to remember for appositives:
- The definition: An appositive is a modifier; it is placed next to some other word or phrase, and it is a synonym of or possible replacement for that other word or phrase.
- Most of the time, appositives are used as noun modifiers and contain nouns themselves, but they can also be adverbial modifiers.
- Non-essential appositives must be set off from the core of the sentence by punctuation marks; essential appositives are not set off from the rest of the sentence by punctuation marks.
- Appositives can be placed before or after the word or phrase they modify, and they can modify an entire phrase rather than just a single word.
Copyright note: the text excerpted above from The Official Guide for GMAT Review 11th Edition and The Official Guide for Verbal Review 2nd Edition is copyright GMAC (the Graduate Management Admissions Council). The short excerpts are quoted under fair-use statutes for scholarly or journalistic work; use of these excerpts does not imply endorsement of this article by GMAC.