NAME : EVRY NOVITA

NPM : 10120333
GROUP :G
LECTURE : GRAMMAR III
LECTURER : Mr. SABAM MARPAUNG. Spd
DEFENITION OF GRAMMAR
 Grammar is the structural foundation of our ability to express
ourselves. The more we are aware of how it works, the more we can
monitor the meaning and effectiveness of the way we and others use
language. It can help foster precision, detect ambiguity, and exploit
the richness of expression available in English. And it can help
everyone--not only teachers of English, but teachers of anything, for
all teaching is ultimately a matter of getting to grips with meaning.
 Grammar is used as a term to refer to the prescriptive rules of a
given language, which may change over time or be open to debate.
 grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of
clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term
refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes
morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by
phonetics, semantics, and pragmatics. Linguists do not normally use
the term to refer to orthographical rules, although usage books and
style guides that call themselves grammars may also refer to spelling
and punctuation.
ACCORDING TO THE EXPERT
 According Jeffrey Coghill and Stacy Magendanz, “The grammar of
a language is the set of rules that govern its structure. Grammar
determines how words are arranged to form meaningful units.”
 According Greenbaum (1996:25), “In the concrete sense of the word
grammar, a grammar is a book of one or more volumes. We of
course also use grammar for the contents of the book. When we
compare grammars for their coverage and accuracy, we are referring
to the contents of the book: a grammar is a book on grammar, just as
a history is a book on history.”
 According Michael Swan (2005:xix), “The rules that show how
words are combined, arranged or changed to show certain kinds of
meaning.”
 According Greenbaum dan Leech. Leech et al (1982:3), “Reference
to the mechanism according to which language works when it is
used to communicate with other people. Grammar is a mechanism
for putting words together, but we have said little about sound of
meaning.”
FUNCTION OF GRAMMAR
 Function words (or grammatical words or synsemantic words or structure-
class words) are words that have little lexical meaning or have ambiguous
meaning, but instead serve to express grammatical relationships with other
words within a sentence, or specify the attitude or mood of the speaker. They
signal the structural relationships that words have to one another and are the
glue that holds sentences together. Thus, they serve as important elements to
the structures of sentences.
 Function words belong to the closed class of words in grammar in that it is
very uncommon to have new function words created in the course of speech,
whereas in the open class of words (that is, nouns, verbs, adjectives, or
adverbs) new words may be added readily (such as slang words, technical
terms, and adoptions and adaptations of foreign words). See neologism.
 Functional Grammar (FG) is a general theory of the organization of natural
language as developed by Simon C. Dik and others. In the theory functional
notions play essential and fundamental roles at different levels of grammatical
organization. The theory is based on data and descriptions of many languages,
and therefore has a high degree of typological adequacy. FG offers a platform
for both theoretical linguists interested in representation and formalism and
descriptive linguists interested in data and analysis.
 Words that are not function words are called content words (or open
class words or lexical words or autosemantic words): these include
nouns, verbs, adjectives, and most adverbs, although some adverbs are
function words (e.g., then and why). Dictionaries define the specific
meanings of content words, but can only describe the general usages of
function words. By contrast, grammars describe the use of function
words in detail, but treat lexical words in general terms only.
 Function words might be prepositions, pronouns, auxiliary verbs,
conjunctions, grammatical articles or particles , all of which belong to
the group of closed-class words. Interjections are sometimes considered
function words but they belong to the group of open-class words.
Function words might or might not be inflected or might have affixes.
 Each function word either gives some grammatical information on other
words in a sentence or clause, and cannot be isolated from other words,
or it may indicate the speaker's mental model as to what is being said.
 Grammatical words, as a class, can have distinct phonological properties
from content words. Grammatical words sometimes do not make full
use of all the sounds in a language. For example, in some of the Khoisan
languages, most content words begin with clicks, but very few function
words do.
PARTS OF SPEECH
1. NOUN
 A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, idea, or quality.
Examples: John, Mary, boy, girl, children; Pasadena, CEC; classrooms, notebooks;
freedom, intelligence; hope, anger, joy
 A noun is often defined as a word which names a person, place or thing. Here are
some examples of nouns: boy, river, friend, Mexico, triangle, day, school, truth,
university, idea, John F. Kennedy, movie, aunt, vacation, eye, dream, flag, teacher,
class, grammar. John F. Kennedy is a noun because it is the name of a person;
Mexico is a noun because it is the name of a place; and boy is a noun because it is
the name of a thing. Some grammar books divide nouns into 2 groups - proper
nouns and common nouns. Proper nouns are nouns which begin with a capital
letter because it is the name of a specific or particular person place or
thing. Some examples of proper nouns are: Mexico, John F. Kennedy, Atlantic
Ocean, February, Monday, New York City, Susan, Maple Street, Burger King. If
you see a word beginning with a capital letter in in the middle of a sentence, it is
probably a proper noun. Most nouns are common nouns and do not begin with a
capital letter.
 For example, the word train is a common, concrete, countable, singular noun
Noun Type
Common Nouns name people, places or
things that are not specific.
Proper Nouns name specific people, places,
or things.
Abstract Nouns name nouns that you can't
perceive with your five sense.
Concrete Nouns name nouns that you can
perceive with your five senses.
Uncountalbe Nouns name nouns that you
can't count.
Singular Nouns name one person, place,
thing, or idea.
Plural Nouns name more than one person,
place, thing, or idea.
Compound Nouns are made up of two or
more words.
Collective Nouns refer to things or people as
a unit.
Examples
man, mountain, state, ocean, country, building, cat,
airline
Walt Disney, Mount Kilimanjaro, Minnesota,
Atlantic Ocean, Australia, Empire State Building,
Fluffy, Sun Country
love, wealth, happiness, pride, fear, religion, belief,
history, communication
house, ocean, Uncle Mike, bird, photograph, banana,
eyes, light, sun, dog, suitcase, flowers
milk, rice, snow, rain, water, food, music
cat, sock, ship, hero, monkey, baby, match
cats, socks, ships, heroes, monkeys, babies, matches
tablecloth, eyeglasses, New York, photograph,
daughter-in-law, pigtails, sunlight, snowflake
bunch, audience, flock, team, group, family, band,
village
2. Adjectives

 An adjective is often defined as a word which describes or gives more information about a noun
or pronoun. Adjectives describe nouns in terms of such qualities as size, color, number, and
kind. In the sentence The lazy dog sat on the rug, the word lazy is an adjective which gives more
information about the noun dog. We can add more adjectives to describe the dog as well as in
the sentence The lazy, old, brown dog sat on the rug. We can also add adjectives to describe the
rug as in the sentence The lazy, old, brown dog sat on the beautiful, expensive, new rug. The
adjectives do not change the basic meaning or structure of the sentence, but they do give a lot
more information about the dog and the rug. As you can see in the example above, when more
than one adjective is used, a comma (,) is used between the adjectives.

 Usually an adjective comes before the noun that it describes, as in tall man. It can also come
after a form of the word beas in The man is tall. More than one adjective can be used in this
position in the sentence The man is tall, dark and handsome. In later lessons, you will learn how
to make comparisons with adjectives.

 Most adjectivesdo not change form whether the noun it describes is singular or plural. For
example we say big tree and big trees, old house and old houses, good time and good
times. There are, however, some adjectives that do have different singular andplural forms. The
common words this and that have the plural forms these and those. These words are called
demonstrative adjectives because demonstrate or point out what is being referred to. Another
common type of adjective is the possessive adjective which shows possession or ownership. The
words my dog or my dogs indicate that the dog or dogs belong to me. I would use the plural
form our if the dog or dogs belonged to me and other people. The chart below shows the forms
of possessive adjectives.
A. Proper Adjectives
 These are formed from proper nouns.
 They always begin with a capital letter.

Proper Noun Proper Adjective

America American
Britain British
Canada Canadian
China Chinese
Christianity Christian
France French

B. Articles
There are only three of these special types of adjectives: a, an , and the.
 C. Regular Comparatives and Superlatives
 Most adjectives can be described in degrees. This means that something can have more or
less of the adjective's quality.
 Regular comparatives end in -er or start with more.
 Regular superlatives end in -est or start with most.

Positive Comparative Superlative

comfortable more comfortable most comfortable
Dry Drier Driest
Beautiful More beautiful Most beautiful
Big Bigger Biggest
Organized More organized Most organized

D. Irregular Comparatives and Superlatives

These can still be given in degrees, but they don't follow the patterns listed above.
Positive Comparative Superlative
Bad Worse Worst
Good Better Best
Little Less Least
E. Adjectives That Cannot Be Comparative or Superlative
 Some adjectives don't have degrees. There is only one level of these adjectives. (For example,
something cannot be more half than something else. It either is half, or it isn't.)
Entire Fatal Final
Half Main Pregnant
3. Verbs

A verb is often defined as a word which shows action or state of being. The verb is the heart of
a sentence - every sentence must have a verb. Recognizing the verb is often the most important
step in understanding the meaning of a sentence. In the sentence The dog bit the man, bit is the
verb and the word which shows the action of the sentence. In the sentence The man is sitting on
a chair, even though the action doesn't show much activity, sitting is the verb of the sentence. In
the sentence She is a smart girl, there is no action but a state of being expressed by the verb is.
The word be is different from other verbs in many ways but can still be thought of as a verb.
Unlike most of the other parts of speech, verbs change their form. Sometimes endings are
added (learn - learned) and sometimes the word itself becomes different (teach-taught). The
different forms of verbs show different meanings related to such things as tense (past, present,
future), person (first person, second person, third person), number (singular, plural) and voice
(active, passive). Verbs are also often accompanied by verb-like words called modals (may,
could, should, etc.) and auxiliaries(do, have, will, etc.) to give them different meanings. One of
the most important things about verbs is their relationship to time. Verbs tell if something has
already happened, if it will happen later, or if it is happening now. For things happening now,
we use the present tense of a verb; for something that has already happened, we use the past
tense; and for something that will happen later, we use the future tense.
Some examples of verbs in each tense are in the chart below:
Present Past Future
Walk Walked Will walk
Move Moved Will move
Talk Talked Will talk

Verbs like those in the chart above that form the past tense by adding -d or -ed are called regular
verbs. Some of the most common verbs are not regular and the different forms of the verb must
be learned. Some examples of such irregular verbs are in the chart below:
Present Past Future
See Saw Will see
Give Gave Will give
Speak Spoke Will speak

The charts above show the simple tenses of the verbs. There are also progressive or
continuous forms which show that the action takes place over a period of time, and perfect
forms which show completion of the action. These forms will be discussed more in other
lessons, but a few examples are given in the chart below:
Present continuous Present perfect
Is speaking Has spoken
Is looking Has looked
4. Adverbs
 We have seen that an adjective is a word that gives more information about a noun or
pronoun. An adverb is usually defined as a word that gives more information about a verb,
an adjective or another adverb. Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives and adverbs in terms of
such qualities as time, frequency and manner. In the sentence Sue runs fast, fast describes
how or the manner in which Sue runs. In the sentence Sue runs very fast, very describes the
adverb fast and gives information about how fast Sue runs.
 Most, but not all adverbs end in -ly as in But not all words that end in -ly are adverbs (ugly is
an adjective, supply and reply can both be nouns or verbs). Many times an adjective can be
made into an adverb by adding -ly as in nicely, quickly, completely, sincerely.
 Adverbs of time tell when something happens and adverbs of frequency tell how often
something happens.
Below are some common adverbs of time and frequency which you should learn:

Adverb of time Frequency

Do it now I always do my homework
I will see you then We sometimes get confused
They will be here soon He usually gets good grades
I can't meet you today I never went skiing
Let's go tomorrow She rarely eats a big breakfast
They told me yesterday He was once on TV
5. Pronouns
 A pronoun is often defined as a word which can be used instead of a noun. For example,
instead of saying John is a student, the pronoun he can be used in place of the noun John and
the sentence becomes He is a student. We use pronouns very often, especially so that we do
not have to keep on repeating a noun. This chapter is about the kind of pronoun called a
personal pronoun because it often refers to a person. Like nouns, personal pronouns sometimes
have singular and plural forms (I-we, he-they).
 Unlike nouns, personal pronouns sometimes have different forms for masculine/male,
feminine/female and neuter (he-she-it). Also unlike nouns, personal pronouns have different
forms depending on if they act as subjects or objects (he-him, she-her). A subject is a word
which does an action and usually comes before the verb, and an object is a word that receives
an action and usually comes after the verb. For example, in the sentence Yesterday Susan
called her mother, Susan is the subject and mother is the object. The pronoun she can be used
instead of Susan and the pronoun her can be used instead of mother. The form of a personal
pronoun also changes according to what person is referred to. Person is used here as a
grammar word and means:
1st person or the self (I, me, we),
2nd person or the person spoken to (you),
3rd person or the person spoken about (he, she, him, her, they, them).
 There is also a possessive form of the pronoun. Just as we can make a noun possessive as in
the sentence That is my father's book to mean That is the book of my father, we can make the
pronoun possessive and say That book is his. There are possessive adjective forms (such as
my, your, his, her etc.) that are discussed with other adjectives in chapter 4. Possessive
pronouns can stand by themselves without nouns, but possessive adjectives, like other
adjectives, are used together with nouns.
There is also an intensive form of the pronoun which intensifies or emphasizes the noun that it
comes after as in the sentence I myself saw him. The reflexive form of the pronoun looks
exactly like the intensive form but is used when the subject and object of a verb refers to the
same person as in the sentence I saw myself in the mirror.
There are also interrogative pronouns (who, which, what) used for asking questions and relative
pronouns (who, which, what, that) used in complex sentences which will be discussed in
another place. Some grammar books also talk about demonstrative pronouns (this, that, these,
those) and indefinite pronouns (some, all, both, each, etc.) which are very similar to adjectives
and do not need to be discussed here.
Relative Pronouns
that, which, who, whom, whose, whichever,
relate a subordinate clause to the rest of the
whoever, whomever
sentence.

Demonstrative Pronouns Singular Plural

represent a thing or things
Refers to things that are nearby this these
Refers to things that are far away that those
Indefinite Pronouns
refer to something that is unspecified.
anybody, anyone, anything, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, neither,
Singular
nobody, no one, nothing, one, somebody, someone, something
Plural both, few, many, several
Singular or Plural all, any, most, none, some
6. Prepositions
 A preposition is a word which shows relationships among other words in the sentence. The
relationships include direction, place, time, cause, manner and amount. In the sentence She
went to the store, to is a preposition which shows direction. In the sentence He came by bus, by
is a preposition which shows manner. In the sentence They will be here at three o'clock, at is a
preposition which shows time and in the sentence It is under the table, under is a preposition
which shows place.
 A preposition always goes with a noun or pronoun which is called the object of the
preposition. The preposition is almost always before the noun or pronoun and that is why it is
called a preposition. The preposition and the object of the preposition together are called a
prepositional phrase. The following chart shows the prepositions, objects of the preposition,
and prepositional phrases of the sentences above.
Preposition Object of the Preposition Prepositional Phrase
To The store to the store
By Bus by bus
At Three o'clock at three o'clock
under The table under the table

Prepositional phrases are like idioms and are best learned through listening to and reading as
much as possible. Below are some common prepositions of time and place and examples of
their use.
 Prepositions of time:
at two o'clock
on Wednesday
in an hour, in January; in 1992
for a day
 Prepositions of place:
at my house
in New York, in my hand
on the table
near the library
across the street
under the bed
between the books

7. Conjunctions
 A conjunction is a word that connects other words or groups of words. In the sentence Bob and
Dan are friends the conjunction and connects two nouns and in the sentence He will drive or
fly, the conjunction or connects two verbs. In the sentence It is early but we can go, the
conjunction but connects two groups of words.
 Coordinating conjunctions are conjunctions which connect two equal parts of a sentence. The
most common ones are and, or, but, and so which are used in the following ways:
 and is used to join or add words together in the sentence They ate and drank.
or is used to show choice or possibilities as in the sentence He will be here on Monday or
Tuesday. But is used to show opposite or conflicting ideas as in the sentence She is small but
strong. So is used to show result as in the sentence I was tired so I went to sleep.
 Subordinating conjunctions connect two parts of a sentence that are not equal and will be
discussed more in another class. For now, you should know some of the more common
subordinating conjunctions such as:
after before unless
although if until
as since when
because than while
 Correlative conjunctions are pairs of conjunctions that work together. In the sentence Both Jan
and Meg are good swimmers, both . . .and are correlative conjunctions. The most common
correlative conjunctions are:
both . . .and
either . . . or
neither . . . nor
not only . . . but also

8. INTERJECTION
 An interjection is a word that expresses feeling or emotion; usually it is followed by an
exclamation mark.
 Examples: Oh! Ah! Wow! Darn! Gosh! Golly! Gee! Ow! Ouch! Yikes! Holy
moly! Yippee! Hooray! Boo! Whew!
THE OTHER PARTS OF SPEECH
1.Prepositional Phrases
 Like adjectives and adverbs, prepositional phrases add meaning to the nouns and verbs in our
sentences. There are two prepositional phrases in the following sentence:
 The steamy air in the kitchen reeked of stale beer.
 The first prepositional phrase--in the kitchen--modifies the noun air; the second--of stale beer--
modifies the verb reeked. The two phrases provide information that helps us to understand the
sentence.
 A prepositional phrase has two basic parts: a preposition plus a noun or a pronoun that serves as
the object of the preposition. A preposition is a word that shows how a noun or a pronoun is
related to another word in a sentence. The common prepositions are listed in the table at the
bottom of this page.
Common Prepositions
about behind except outside
above below for over
across beneath from past
after beside in through
againts between inside to
along beyond into under
among by near until
2.Coordination
 When we coordinate things, whether we're talking about our schedules or our clothing, we make
connections--or, as the dictionary says in a more fanciful way, "bring things together in a
common and harmonious action." The same idea applies when we talk about coordination in
grammar.
 A common way to connect related words, phrases, and even entire clauses is to coordinate
them--that is, connect them with a coordinating conjunction such as "and" or "but." The
following short paragraph from Ernest Hemingway's Another Country contains several
coordinated words, phrases, and clauses.
 In most of his novels and short stories, Hemingway relies heavily (some readers might say too
heavily) on such basic conjunctions as "and" and "but." The other coordinating conjunctions are
yet, or, nor, for, and so.
 Similar to these basic conjunctions are the following paired conjunctions (sometimes called
correlative conjunctions):
 both . . . and
either . . . or
neither . . . nor
not . . . but
not . . . nor
not only . . . but (also)
whether . . . or
 The paired conjunctions serve to emphasize the words being connected.
3. Absolute Phrases
 An absolute phrase is a word group that modifies an entire sentence. It consists of a noun plus at
least one other word, as shown here:
 The hunters rested for a moment in front of the shack, their breaths white in the frosty air.
 The noun (breaths) that begins this absolute phrase is followed by an adjective (white) and a
prepositional phrase (in the frosty air).
 In addition to adjectives and prepositional phrases, adverbs and participles can also follow the
noun in an absolute phrase. As the sentence above shows, an absolute phrase lets us move from
a description of a whole person, place, or thing to just one or more parts: from hunters, for
instance, to their breaths.

Building and Arranging Absolute Phrases

 Consider how the sentence just seen might be brokn down into two sentences: The hunters
rested for a moment in front of the shack.
Their breaths were white in the frosty air. The second sentence, we see, can be turned into an
absolute phrase simply by omitting the linking verb were. As we have seen, the absolute phrase
may appear at the end of a sentence: The hunters rested for a moment in front of the shack, their
breaths white in the frosty air. The absolute phrase may also appear at the beginning of the
sentence: Their breaths white in the frosty air, the hunters rested for a moment in front of the
shack. And occasionally an absolute phrase is positioned between the subject and verb: The
hunters, their breaths white in the frosty air, rested for a moment in front of the shack.
Participles as Modifiers
 Consider the different verb forms in this sentence:
 My father's hair, streaked with gray and receding on both sides, is combed straight back to
his collar.
 The main verb (or predicate) of the sentence is the phrase is combed. The other two verbs
forms are participles:
 streaked is a past participle, formed by adding -ed to the present form of the verb
("streak");
 receding is a present participle, formed by adding -ing to the verb ("recede").
 Both participles work as adjectives and follow the noun they modify: "hair."
 Like regular adjectives, participles may also appear in front of the nouns they modify:
 The whispering breeze scattered seeds across the abandoned fields.
 Here, both the present participle whispering and the past participle abandoned stand in
front of the nouns they describe ("breeze" and "fields").
Present and Past Participles
 When thinking about participles, don't be misled by the words present and past. These terms
refer to different forms of verbs, not to different times or tenses.
All present participles end in -ing:
the laughing lady
the falling temperature
the stinging remark
The past participles of all regular verbs end in -ed:
the tired dancer
the injured player
the cracked vase

4. Participial Phrases
 Both present and past participles can be used in phrases--called participial phrases--that modify
nouns and pronouns. A participial phrase is made up of a participle and its modifiers. A participle
may be followed by an object, an adverb, a prepositional phrase, an adverb clause, or any
combination of these. Here, for example, the participial phrase consists of a present participle
(holding), an object (the torch), and an adverb (steadily):
 Holding the torch steadily, Merdine approached the monster.
 In the next sentence, the participial phrase includes a present participle (making), an object (a
great ring), and a prepositional phrase (of white light):
 Merdine waved the torch over her head, making a great ring of white light.
 Let's practice by combining these three sentences, turning the first and third into participial
phrases:
I guided the pinball through the upper chutes, down a runover lane, off the slingshot bumpers to
the flippers.
I cradled it there.
I bounced it back and forth until I had a perfect shot through the spinner.
 To emphasize the quick, successive actions described in these three sentences, we can combine
them by turning the verbs guided and bounced into present participles:
Guiding the ball through the upper chutes, down a runover lane, off the slingshot bumpers to the
flippers, I cradled it there, bouncing it back and forth until I had a perfect shot through the
spinner.
(J. Anthony Lucas, "The Inner Game of Pinball")
Here, the first phrase includes a present participle (Guiding) and its object (the pinball),
followed by a series of prepositional phrases. The second participial phrase again contains a
present participle (bouncing) and its object (it), followed by a pair of adverbs (back and forth)
and an adverb clause. Both participial phrases modify "I," the subject of the sentence. Note that
participial phrases can't stand alone as complete sentences: they must modify a noun or pronoun
in the sentence.

5.Adverb Clauses
 These five short exercises in sentence combining will give you practice in developing sentences
with adverb clauses. Follow the instructions that precede each set of sentences. After you have
completed the exercise, compare your new sentences with the sample combinations on page
two.
1. Combine these two sentences by turning the second sentence into an adverb clause beginning
with an appropriate subordinating conjunction of time:
 In a Junction City diner, a sunburned farmer comforts his squirming son.
 His wife sips coffee and recalls the high school prom.
2. Combine these two sentences by turning the second sentence into an adverb clause beginning
with an appropriate subordinating conjunction of place:
 Diane wants to live somewhere.
 The sun shines every day there.
3. Combine these two sentences by turning the first sentence into an adverb clause beginning with
an appropriate subordinating conjunction of concession or comparison:
 Work stops.
 Expenses run on.
4. Combine these two sentences by turning the first sentence into an adverb clause beginning with
an appropriate subordinating conjunction of condition:
 You're on the right track.
 You'll get run over if you just sit there.
5. Combine these two sentences by turning the first sentence into an adverb clause beginning with
an appropriate subordinating conjunction of cause:
 Satchel Paige was black.
 He was not allowed to pitch in the major leagues until he was in his forties.
From Adjective Clauses to Appositives
 Like an adjective clause, an appositive provides more information about a noun. In fact, we
may think of an appositive as a simplified adjective clause. Consider, for example, how the
following two sentences can be combined:
Jimbo Gold is a professional magician.
Jimbo Gold performed at my sister's birthday party.
 One way to combine these sentences is to turn the first sentence into an adjective clause:

Jimbo Gold, who is a professional magician, performed at my sister's birthday party.

We also have the option of reducing the adjective clause in this sentence to an appositive. All
that we need to do is omit the pronoun who and the verb is:
Jimbo Gold, a professional magician, performed at my sister's birthday party.
 The appositive a professional magician serves to identify the subject, Jimbo Gold. Reducing an
adjective clause to an appositive is one way to cut the clutter in our writing. However, not all
adjective clauses can be shortened to appositives in this fashion--only those that contain a form
of the verb to be (is, are, was, were).

6. Arranging Appositives
 An appositive most often appears directly after the noun it identifies or renames:

C. Punctuating Nonrestrictive and Restrictive Appositives

As we've seen, most appositives are nonrestrictive--that is, the information that they add
to a sentence is not essential for the sentence to make sense. Nonrestrictive appositives
are set off by commas or dashes.
 A restrictive appositive (like a restrictive adjective clause) is one that cannot be omitted from a
sentence without affecting the basic meaning of the sentence. A restrictive appositive should not
be set off by commas:
John-Boy's sister Mary Ellen became a nurse after their brother Ben took a job at a lumber mill.
Because John-Boy has multiple sisters and brothers, the two restrictive appositives make clear
which sister and which brother the writer is talking about. In other words, the two appositives
are restrictive, and so they are not set off by commas.

Four Variations
1. Appositives that Repeat a Noun
Although an appositive usually renames a noun in a sentence, it may instead repeat a noun for
the sake of clarity and emphasis:
In America, as in anywhere else in the world, we must find a focus in our lives at an early age, a
focus that is beyond the mechanics of earning a living or coping with a household.
(Santha Rama Rau, "An invitation to Serenity")
Notice that the appositive in this sentence is modified by an adjective clause. Adjectives,
prepositional phrases, and adjective clauses (in other words, all of the structures that can modify
a noun) are often used to add details to an appositive.
2. Negative Appositives
Most appositives identify what someone or something is, but there are also negative appositives
that identify what someone or something is not:
Line managers and production employees, rather than staff specialists, are primarily responsible
for quality assurance.
Negative appositives begin with a word such as not, never, or rather than.
3. Multiple Appositives
Two, three, or even more appositives may appear alongside the same noun:
Saint Petersburg, a city of almost five-million people, Russia's second-largest and northernmost
metropolis, was designed three centuries ago by Peter the Great.
As long as we don't overwhelm the reader with too much information at one time, a double or
triple appositive can be an effective way of adding supplementary details to a sentence.
4. List Appositives with Pronouns
A final variation is the list appositive that precedes a pronoun such as all or these or everyone:
Streets of yellow row houses, the ochre plaster walls of old churches, the crumbling sea-green
mansions now occupied by government offices--all seem in sharper focus, with their defects
hidden by the snow.
(Leona P. Schecter, "Moscow")