Article published In: The Structure of the English NP: Synchronic and diachronic explorations
Edited by Kristin Davidse
[Functions of Language 23:1] 2016
► pp. 17–39
Loose apposition
A construction-based analysis
Published online: 16 June 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.23.1.02kim
https://doi.org/10.1075/fol.23.1.02kim
Loose appositional constructions consist of coreferring adjacent nominals. The relation between the nominals is different from complementation and modification, and shows some intriguing syntactic, semantic and pragmatic characteristics. To model them we employ the framework of Sign-Based Construction Grammar, enriching its inventory of constructions with a highly abstract one that models supplementation in general, and a more specific one that models the loose appositional construction.
References (27)
. 2009. Aspects of the grammar of close apposition and the structure of the noun phrase. English Language and Linguistics 13(3). 453–481.
Allegranza, Valerio. 2007. The signs of determination. Constraint-based modelling across languages. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
Amaral, Patricia, Craige Roberts & Allyn Smith. 2007. Review of “The logic of conventional implicatures” by Chris Potts. Linguistics and Philosophy 30(6). 707–749.
Boas, Hans C. & Ivan A. Sag (eds.). 2012. Sign-based construction grammar. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.
Delorme, Evelyne & Ray Dougherty. 1972. Appositive NP constructions: we, the men; we men; I, a man; Etc. Foundations of Language 8(1). 2–29.
Fillmore, Charles & Collin Baker. 2010. A frames approach to semantic description. In Bernd Heine & Heiko Narrog (eds.), The Oxford handbook of linguistic analysis, 313–339. Oxford: OUP.
Fodor, Janet D. & Ivan A. Sag. 1982. Referential and quantificational indefinites. Linguistics and Philosophy 5(3). 355–398.
Ginzburg, Jonathan & Ivan A. Sag. 2000. Interrogative investigations. The form, meaning and use of English interrogatives. Stanford, CA: CSLI Publications.
Harris, Jesse A. & Christopher Potts. 2009. Perspective-shifting with appositives and expressives. Linguistics and Philosophy 32(6). 523–552.
Heringa, Herman. 2011. Appositional constructions (LOT Dissertation Series 294). Groningen: University of Groningen PhD thesis.
Huddleston, Rodney & Geoffrey Pullum. 2002. The Cambridge grammar of the English language. Cambridge: CUP.
Kamp, Hans & Uwe Reyle. 1993. From discourse to logic. Introduction to modeltheoretic semantics of natural language, formal logic and discourse representation theory. Dordrecht: Kluwer.
Kim, Jong-Bok. 2012. Form and function mismatch in the English appositional construction. Language Research 48(3). 1–23.
Loock, Rudy & Kathleen M. O’Connor. 2013. The discourse functions of nonverbal appositives. Journal of English Linguistics 41(4). 332–358.
. 2007. Conventional implicatures: A distinguished class of meanings. In Gillian Ramchand & Charles Reiss (eds.), The Oxford handbook of linguistic interfaces, 475–501. Oxford: OUP.
Quirk, Randolph, Sidney Greenbaum, Geoffry Leech & Jan Svartvik. 1985. A comprehensive grammar of the English language. London: Longman.
Sag, Ivan A. 2012. Sign-based construction grammar: An informal synopsis. In Hans C. Boas & Ivan A. Sag (eds.), 69–202.
Cited by (2)
Cited by two other publications
Kim, Jong-Bok
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 9 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.
