In this sentence, woman is the noun placed in apposition to the particular name, Helen Keller, and the noun woman is modified by the adjectives the, and wonderful, and by the phrase of this age.
Sometimes a second explanatory word is placed in apposition to the first one. This is quite often the case in legal documents or resolutions, where the language is quite formal. For example:
- We, the undersigned, members of Local No. 38, do hereby move, etc.
- I, John Smith, Notary Public, in and for the county of Clay, etc.
These words, undersigned and members, are both placed in apposition to the pronoun We, explaining to whom that pronoun refers.
Exercise 5
In the following sentences note the explanatory words and their modifiers:
- Wendell Phillips, the great abolitionist, was a man of genius.
- Buckle, the historian, writes from the view point of the materialistic conception of history.
- Giovannitti, the poet, wrote "Arrows in the Gale."
- Helen Keller, champion of the working class, wrote the introduction to this book.
- We, the workers of the world, will some day claim our own.
- He was found guilty of treason, a crime punishable by death.
- Ferrer, the martyr of the twentieth century, was put to death by the Spanish government.
- Jaures, the great French socialist, was the first martyr to peace.
- But ye, Plebs, Populace, People, Rabble, Mob, Proletariat, live and abide forever.
- Ye are eternal, even as your father, labor, is eternal.
- This document, the Constitution of the United States, hinders the progress of the people.
- The memory of Guttenberg, the inventor of the printing press, should be reverenced by every class-conscious worker.
- Wallace, the scientist and author, was co-discoverer with Darwin of the theory of evolution.
- Karl Marx, the thinker, applied this theory to social forces.
- Do you understand the three basic principles of Socialism—the class struggle, economic determinism and surplus value?
Exercise 6
Read the following list of words and note the ideas which they suggest to you, then make sentences containing these words, modified by a word or group of words in apposition, which explain more fully these words.
Law, martyr, society, education, inventor, commander, freedom, Eugene V. Debs, Karl Marx, Kaiser Wilhelm, The Balkan, Lawrence, Colorado, Calumet.