Appositive phrases

[Robert J. Pohl]

The colon is used in the following ways: to distinguish between titles and subtitles and to introduce a series, an appositive phrase, or a quotation.

Is "to distinguish between titles and subtitles and to introduce a series, an appositive phrase, or a quotation" an appositive phrase in this sentence?

If so, why?

-- Rob

[svartnik]

Originally Posted by Robert J. Pohl

The colon is used in the following ways: to distinguish between titles and subtitles and to introduce a series, an appositive phrase, or a quotation.

Is "to distinguish between titles and subtitles and to introduce a series, an appositive phrase, or a quotation" an appositive phrase in this sentence?

If so, why?

-- Rob

Surely not.
"apposition is a grammatical device in which two elements are placed side by side, with the second element serving to define or modify the first with no word in between."
This is not the case here.

[rewboss]

No, it's not an appositive.

An appositive is, basically, a way of restating a noun (or noun phrase) -- think of it as an alternative, like this:

The US President, George W. Bush, is giving a speech.

The phrase "George W. Bush" is another way of saying "The US President", so it's in apposition.

Here's another example, this time using a colon:

Peter was not exactly stone-cold sober at this point: he was embarrassingly drunk.

"Embarrassingly drunk" is another way of saying "not exactly stone-cold sober". We use the colon for appositives when it comes after a complete sentence (we could end the sentence at that point and it would be grammatically complete).

In your sentence, what the colon introduces is a series -- that is, a list. You can write out the different items of the list like this:

The colon is used in the following ways:
- to distinguish between titles and subtitles
- to introduce a series
- to introduce an appositive phrase
- to introduce a quotation.

[Robert J. Pohl]

You all are always so concise and helpful. Finally, colons and appositives have been embedded in my memory.

-- Rob