Neighbour John saw cat Whiskers near pharmacy GBN when car Mercedes was there.

[Uncanny]

Is this sentence ok:

Neighbour John saw cat Whiskers near pharmacy GBN when car Mercedes was there.

 

[Rover_KE]

Is this sentence OK?

Who wrote it? If you did, why?

 

[Tarheel]

It's impossible to know what "OK" means there. Is is grammatical? No. Is it weird? Definitely!

 

[Uncanny]

It's impossible to know what "OK" means there. Is is grammatical? Technically, yes. Is it weird? Definitely!

What are the parts that are not idiomatic?
Are there any restrictions as to which title nouns can be placed before proper names?

 

[Piscean]

Is is grammatical? Technically, yes.

It is not!


Neighbour John is just about possible; cat Whiskers, pharmacy GBN and car Mercedes are not.

 

[jutfrank]

Are there any restrictions as to which title nouns can be placed before proper names?

Yes. Only when the noun is a title. None of your examples use titles. Obviously, 'cat' is not a title.

 

[Uncanny]

Yes. Only when the noun is a title. None of your examples use titles. Obviously, 'cat' is not a title.

So, one can say "Reverent Johnson", "Carpenter Johnson", "Teacher Johnson", "Assistant Johnson", "Patient Johnson", etc.?

 

[Uncanny]

It is not!


Neighbour John is just about possible; cat Whiskers, pharmacy GBN and car Mercedes are not.

Would the article "the" before these change your verdict?

 

[jutfrank]

So, one can say "Reverent Johnson", "Carpenter Johnson", "Teacher Johnson", "Assistant Johnson", "Patient Johnson", etc.?

No. Only Reverend Johnson is correct there. The others are not titles.

 

[jutfrank]

Would the article "the" before these change your verdict?

I'll answer for Piscean: No.

 

[Uncanny]

I'll answer for Piscean: No.

So "the organization Greenpeace", "the ballet Swan Lake", "the novel Don Quixote", "the cheese Camembert" are wrong?

 

[jutfrank]

So "the organization Greenpeace", "the ballet Swan Lake", "the novel Don Quixote", "the cheese Camembert" are wrong?

No, they're all correct the last one is questionable) but they're quite different as they're not titles. Those are all appositives.

 

[emsr2d2]

So "the organization Greenpeace", "the ballet Swan Lake", "the novel Don Quixote", "the cheese Camembert" are wrong?

It depends on the context. You'll need to put all of those into their own individual sentences in order for us to comment.

 

[emsr2d2]

Is this sentence ok:

Neighbour John saw cat Whiskers near pharmacy GBN when car Mercedes was there.

My neighbour, John, saw a local cat, Whiskers, near the GBN pharmacy. There was a Mercedes parked nearby/outside.

I have no idea why you've written this sentence or what the car has to do with the rest of the sentence. You still need to answer Rover's questions in post #2.

 

[jutfrank]

Uncanny is probably thinking of restrictive appositives (with no separating comma), like these:

My next-door neighbour John ran over my sister Mary's cat Whiskers.

 

[Uncanny]

Who wrote it? If you did, why?

I thought that it would be pretty ovbvious that, unless mentioned otherwise, the author is the poster.

Is there at least a rough classification of the categories of restrictive appositives used outside of journalese? You have probably never heard "the wine Merlot" or "the horse Valyra", have you?

 

[Tarheel]

@Uncanny It is not always obvious.

Are you saying that Merlot is a wine?

 

[Rover_KE]

@Uncanny It is not always obvious.

We take nothing for granted.

 

[Rover_KE]

I thought that it would be pretty obvious that, unless mentioned otherwise, the author is the poster.

Stating at the start, ‘I wrote the following sentence’ takes up very little of your time and often forestalls misunderstandings later on.