30. Just at that moment the moon shone out from behind a cloud.—Old Deccan Days.
31. She was dressed in plain dull black, save for a sort of dark blue kerchief which was folded across her bosom.—H. James.
32. Until very lately, the promenaders in the Piazza were exclusively foreigners, or else the families of such government officials as were obliged to show themselves there.—Howells.
33. Just then he heard the black steed panting and blowing close behind him.—Irving.
34. And people remembered her mother, how silent she had been, and how patient, and how like to what Mona was, and they said now, as they had said long ago, “She’s going down the steep places.”—Caine.
35. The causes of this change lie partly in the altered character of the whole world’s civilization, partly in the increasing poverty of the city.—Howells.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE APPOSITIVE PHRASE
Function.—As a means of avoiding a predication, perhaps no other sentence-element is oftener employed than the appositive phrase; as, “They have the genius for hard work—the most desirable kind of genius.” The appositive is a very loosely joined adjunct, but its position in the sentence and the frequency of its use make its relation easily intelligible.
The appositive phrase comes about in this way. The sentence quoted above really amounts to two independent propositions; namely, They have the genius for hard work, and, The genius for hard work is the most desirable kind of genius. These propositions joined into a closely built sentence with proper subordination might read thus,—They have the genius for hard work, which is the most desirable kind of genius. Here we have an unrestrictive adjective clause.