APPOSITIVE CLAUSES IN ENGLISH SYNTAX

Abstract

This article treats appositive clauses in English syntax. The discussion is based on the fact that these clauses are considered complex by Indonesian students of English in reading and grammar classes. Appositive clauses are actually similar to noun clauses with appositive function. They provide additional information to the preceding nouns (or noun phrases) which are antecedents. What makes theses clauses complex is their unique construction. There are two kinds of appositive clauses as shown by grammarians, restrictive and nonrestrictive. However, the clause markers and the antecedents are of various types. Such words as that and whether function as clause markers. The antecedents are in the form of nouns (see Box 4) or other words (see Box 5). Appositive clauses are often confused with relative clauses but Burton (1997) tried to solve this confusion using tree diagram (see diagrams 6 and 7). In the end, I list ten remarks concerning appositive clauses. Key words: syntax, appositive clauses