Concept in Definition ABC

The term apposition is part of the terminology of the grammar. Specifically, apposition is one of the elements of the subject of a sentence.

The apposition in the bimembres sentences

The two-member sentences are divided into subject and predicate. If we focus on the subject, there is always one more word important or core and in the case of the subject the nucleus is always a noun. However, this core is accompanied by other words that complete its meaning and these other words are modifiers, which can be direct or indirect. On the other hand, the nucleus has other elements that modify it and one of them is the apposition.

Let's see the previous explanation through a sentence as an example: Paco and Luisa, my uncles, turned fifty years of marriage. The nucleus verbal of this sentence is the verb form "complied". The subject is made up of "Paco and Luisa, my uncles". The core of the subject is Paco and Luisa. On the other hand "my uncles" is a building joint that is between commas and could be dispensed with and the sentence would have the same meaning.

Consequently, "my uncles" becomes a repetition of the subject (my uncles are Paco and Luisa) and precisely this idea of ​​repetition of the subject is an apposition. In other words, an apposition is an element of the sentence that acts as a synonym for the core of the subject. The only difference between the core of the subject and the apposition is the order.

To identify an apposition in a sentence, two aspects must be taken into account

1) is the information that repeats the core of the subject and

2) appears between commas (except in cases where the apposition is specific).

There are two types of appositions, the explanatory and the specific

The explanatory ones are those that go between commas and, as the name suggests, explain something. In the following sentence, "Madrid, capital of Spain, is a town immense ", the apposition is" capital of Spain ". On the other hand, the specific appositions are those that provide additional information about the subject. (for example, in the sentence "The Danube river runs through Europe", "Danube" is an apposition specific).

These forms of grammar construction provide additional information that may be dispensable (such as it happens with explanatory appositions) or essential, just as it happens with appositions specifics.

Explanatory appositions function as a subsection and in this sense they act in a similar way to parentheses.

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