Editing Apposition (section)

{{Short description|Modifying noun phrases by placing them next to each other}}
{{about|the grammatical construction}}
{{distinguish|text=[[dislocation (syntax)|dislocation]]s, an apposition-like structure whose elements are not placed side by side|opposition (disambiguation)}}
{{distinguish|adposition}}
'''Apposition''' is a [[grammatical]] construction in which two elements, normally [[noun phrases]], are placed side by side so one element identifies the other in a different way. The two elements are said to be ''in apposition'', and the element indentifying the other is called the '''appositive'''. The identification of an appositive requires consideration of how the elements are used in a sentence.

For example, in these sentences, the phrases ''Alice Smith'' and ''my sister'' are in apposition, with the appositive identified with italics:
* My sister, ''Alice Smith'', likes jelly beans.
* Alice Smith, ''my sister'', likes jelly beans.

Traditionally, appositives were called by their [[Latin]] name ''appositio'', derived from the Latin ''ad'' ("near") and ''positio'' ("placement"), although the English form is now more commonly used.

Apposition is a figure of speech of the [[scheme (linguistics)|scheme]] type and often results when the verbs (particularly verbs of being) in supporting clauses are eliminated to produce shorter descriptive phrases. That makes them often function as [[hyperbaton]]s, or figures of disorder, because they can disrupt the flow of a sentence. For example, in the phrase: "My wife, a surgeon by training,...", it is necessary to pause before the parenthetical modification "a surgeon by training".