In each of these examples, a substantive in the possessive case modifies the subject by limiting its meaning precisely as an adjective would do.
Note. An adjective phrase may often be substituted for a possessive. Thus, in the first example, instead of “Napoleon’s tomb” one may say “the tomb of Napoleon” ([§ 93]).
V. APPOSITIVES
472. The subject may be modified by a substantive in apposition ([§ 88, 5]).
- Meredith the carpenter lives in that house.
- Herbert, our captain, has broken his leg.
- The idol of the Aztecs, a grotesque image, was thrown down by the Spaniards.
- Many books, both pamphlets and bound volumes, littered the table. [Here the subject (books) is modified by two appositives.]
Appositives often have modifiers of their own.
Thus carpenter is modified by the adjective the, captain by the possessive our, image by the adjectives a and grotesque.
In analyzing, the whole appositive phrase (consisting of the appositive and attached words) may be regarded as modifying the subject. It is as well, however, to treat the appositive as the modifier and then to enumerate the adjectives, etc., by which the appositive itself is modified.
473. A noun clause may be used as an appositive, and so may be an adjective modifier ([§ 386]).
- The question whether Antonio was a citizen was settled in the affirmative. [Here the italicized clause is used as a noun in apposition with question.]
- The statement that water freezes seems absurd to a native of the torrid zone. [The clause that water freezes is in apposition with statement.]