Syntax & Word Order
Apposition / Appositive
Placing a noun phrase beside another to rename or explain it: “my brother, the doctor.” Both phrases refer to the same person or thing.
“My sister, a marine biologist, arrived”: the noun phrase renames my sister.
Don't confuse it with Parenthesis. Parenthesis interrupts without renaming; apposition always re-identifies the neighboring noun.
Examples
My sister, a marine biologist, studies coral.
“A marine biologist” is a noun phrase that renames “my sister.”
Often used alongside this device
Explore devices that often appear in the same passages as apposition / appositive.
Anaphora 15 Asyndeton 12 Personification 10 Metaphor 9 Litotes 9 Antithesis 7 Irony 6 Parallelism 5
The rest of the family
Hyperbaton Anastrophe Periodic Sentence Cumulative (Loose) Sentence Parataxis Parenthesis Zeugma Hendiadys Pleonasm Enumeration / Accumulatio Passive Voice Cleft Sentence