The position of attributes
The position of an attribute depends on the following:
1. The morphological nature of the attribute. Adjectives, participles, gerunds, nouns in the common and the possessive cases, pronouns, ordinal numerals, and quotation nouns generally premodify the headword.
He was a little man, with a thin voice.
Val had just changed out of riding clothes and was on his way to the party.
The apple trees were in blossom. His eyes travelled over the landscape at their feet.
Adverbs, statives, cardinal numerals and infinitives are generally postmodifying attributes.
Participles II, statives, and adjectives of verbal origin used as attributes also tend to occupy the position after the headword.
The people involved were reported to the police.
When we build cities we think about generations unborn.
Adjectives ending in -able, -ible are mostly postpositive as attributes. They often follow a headword preceded by only or a similar word with a limiting meaning.
The only personvisible was the policeman (who could be seen).
The only way of escapingimaginable was through the window (which could be imagined).
2. Тhe extension of the attribute. Non-detached attributes are postmodifying when expressed by extended phrases or complexes.
The influence of extension can be illustrated by the following pairs of examples:
It is a sensible suggestion. - It is a suggestion sensible in many ways.
3. The morphological nature of the headword. Such words as demonstrative or indefinite pronouns and numerals cannot have an attribute in preposition.
Those coming first occupied the best seats.
Most of their time animals spend in search ofsomething eatable.
There isnothing interesting in this book. All present were disgusted by his behaviour.
Note: Non-detached postmodifying attributes are foundin traditional phrases borrowed from French or Latin, such as blood royal, time immemorial, the second person plural, heir apparent (heir presumptive). Lords spiritual, Lords temporal
THE APPOSITION
An apposition is a part of the sentence expressed by a noun or nominal phrase and referring to another noun or nominal phrase (the headword), or sometimes to a clause.
The apposition may give another designation to, or description of, the person or non-person, or else put it in a certain class of persons or non-persons. In the latter case it is similar to an attribute, as it characterizes the person or non-person denoted by the headword.
Beyond the villa, a strange-looking building, began the forest.
He had remembered her at once, for he always admired her, a very pretty creature.
Like the attribute, the apposition may be in preposition or postposition. However, unlike the attribute, which is always subordinated to its headword and is usually connected with other parts in the sentence only through it, words in apposition are, at least syntactically, coordinated parts, that is, both the headword and the apposition are constituents of the same level in the sentence. This may be illustrated by two possible types of transformation of sentences with words in apposition.
Mr Smith, the local doctor, was known to everybody.
The local doctor, Mr Smith, was knownto everybody.
However, an apposition can rarely replace the headword in the sentence. Substitution is possible only if the apposition meets the following conditions:
1. It denotes the same person or non-person as the headword.
Winterbourne was back on the Somme, that incredible desert, pursuing the retreating enemy.
If it puts the person or non-person in a certain class of persons or nonpersons, no substitution is possible. Thus the sentence Mr Smith, a local doctor, was known to everybody cannot be transformed into the sentence *A local doctor was known to everybody.
2. It is expressed by words of the same morphological class as its headword. Otherwise the apposition may be unacceptable in the structure of the sentence because of its grammatical or lexical meaning. This can be illustrated by the sentence: She was seized by a gust of curiosity to see that wife of his, which does not allow the substitution of the apposition for the headword - She was seized by a gust of to see that wife of his.
3. It follows the headword immediately and has no dependent words which may hinder substitution. Otherwise, the dependent words may block the connection and make the apposition unacceptable in the structure of the sentence. Thus, the sentence John, at that time a student, wrote several articles on architecture cannot be transformed into At that lime a student wrote several articles on architecture, for it changes the meaning of the sentence altogether.
The sentences discussed above show the peculiarity of the appositive relation: although itresembles coordination syntactically (in that the headword and the apposition are constituents of the same level within the sentence),communicatively they are not of the same rank.
Appositions may be joined by a coordinating conjunction, or follow one another asyndetically. In both cases appositions refer directly to the headword.
A man of action and a born leader, now forced into a state of thought, he was unhappy.
A daughter of poor but honest parents, I have no reason to be ashamed of my origins.