The position of an attribute depends on the following:
1. The morphological nature of the attribute. Adjectives, participles, gerunds, nouns in the common and the possessive cases, pronouns, ordinal numerals, and quotation nouns generally premodify the headword.
He was a little man, with a thin voice.
Adverbs, statives, cardinal numerals and infinitives are generally postmodifying attributes.
Participles II, statives, and adjectives of verbal origin used as attributes also tend to occupy the position after the headword.
The people involved were reported to the police.
Adjectives ending in -able, -ible are mostly postpositive as attributes. They often follow a headword preceded by only or a similar word with a limiting meaning.
The only person visible was the policeman (who could be seen).
The only way of escaping imaginable was through the window (which could be imagined).
2. Тhe extension of the attribute. Non-detached attributes are postmodifying when expressed by extended phrases or complexes.
The influence of extension can be illustrated by the following pairs of examples:
They passed the bodies of British soldiers killed that night.
It was a little log house with whitewashed walls.
3. The morphological nature of the headword. Such words as demonstrative or indefinite pronouns and numerals cannot have an attribute in preposition.
Those coming first occupied the best seats.
Most of their time animals spend in search of something eatable.
There is nothing interesting in this book.
All present were disgusted by his behaviour.
The continuative attributive clause presents a situation on an equal domination basis with its principal clause, and so is attributive only in form, but not in meaning. It expresses a new predicative event (connected with the antecedent) which somehow continues the chain of situations reflected by the sentence as a whole. Cf.:
In turn, the girls came singly before Brett, who frowned, blinked, bit his pencil, and scratched his head with it, getting no help from the audience, who applauded each girl impartially and hooted at every swim suit, as if they could not see hundreds any day round the swimming pool (M. Dickens).
Apposition
An apposition is a part of the sentence expressed by a noun or nominal phrase and referring to another noun or nominal phrase (the headword), or sometimes to a clause.
The apposition may give another designation to, or description of, the person or non-person, or else put it in a certain class of persons or non-persons. In the latter case it is similar to an attribute, as it characterizes the person or non-person denoted by the headword.
Beyond the villa, a strange-looking building, began the forest.
He had remembered her at once, for he always admired her, a very pretty creature.
Like the attribute, the apposition may be in preposition or postposition. However, unlike the attribute, which is always subordinated to its headword and is usually connected with other parts in the sentence only through it, words in apposition are, at least syntactically, coordinated parts, that is, both the headword and the apposition are constituents of the same level in the sentence. This may be illustrated by two possible types of transformation of sentences with words in apposition.
Mr Smith, the local doctor, was known to everybody.
The local doctor, Mr Smith, was known to everybody.
However, an apposition can rarely replace the headword in the sentence. Substitution is possible only if the apposition meets the following conditions:
1. It denotes the same person or non-person as the headword.
Winterbourne was back on the Somme, that incredible desert, pursuing the retreating enemy.
If it puts the person or non-person in a certain class of persons or nonpersons, no substitution is possible. Thus the sentence Mr Smith, a local doctor, was known to everybody cannot be transformed into the sentence *A local doctor was known to everybody.
2. It is expressed by words of the same morphological class as its headword. Otherwise the apposition may be unacceptable in the structure of the sentence because of its grammatical or lexical meaning. This can be illustrated by the sentence: She was seized by a gust of curiosity to see that wife of his, which does not allow the substitution of the apposition for the headword - She was seized by a gust of to see that wife of his.
3. It follows the headword immediately and has no dependent words which may hinder substitution. Otherwise, the dependent words may block the connection and make the apposition unacceptable in the structure of the sentence. Thus, the sentence John, at that time a student, wrote several articles on architecture cannot be transformed into At that lime a student wrote several articles on architecture, for it changes the meaning of the sentence altogether.
The sentences discussed above show the peculiarity of the appositive relation: although it resembles coordination syntactically (in that the headword and the apposition are constituents of the same level within the sentence), communicatively they are not of the same rank.
Appositions may be joined by a coordinating conjunction, or follow one another asyndetically. In both cases appositions refer directly to the headword.
Dr and Mrs Macphail were left alone.
A man of action and a born leader, now forced into a state of thought, he was unhappy.
A daughter of poor but honest parents, I have no reason to be ashamed of my origins.
The appositive clause, in keeping with the general nature of apposition, does not simply give some sort of qualification to its antecedent, but defines or elucidates its very meaning in the context. Due to this specialisation, appositive clauses refer to substantive antecedents of abstract semantics. Since the role of appositive clauses consists in bringing about contextual limitations of the meaning of the antecedent, the status of appositive clauses in the general system of attributive clauses is intermediary between restrictive and descriptive.
In accord with the type of the governing antecedent, all the appositive clauses fall into three groups: first, appositive clauses of nounal relation; second, appositive clauses of pronominal relation; third, appositive clauses of anticipatory relation.
Appositive clauses of nounal relation are functionally nearer to restrictive attributive clauses than the rest. They can introduce information of a widely variable categorial nature, both nominal and adverbial. The categorial features of the rendered information are defined by the type of the antecedent.
The characteristic antecedents of nominal apposition are abstract nouns like fact, idea, question, plan, suggestion, news, information, etc. Cf.:
The news that Dr. Blare had refused to join the Antarctic expedition was sensational. We are not prepared to discuss the question who will chair the next session of the Surgical Society.
The nominal appositive clauses can be tested by transforming them into the corresponding clauses of primary nominal positions through the omission of the noun-antecedent or translating it into a predicative complement. Cf.:
... → That Dr. Blare had refused to join the Antarctic expedition was sensational. —» That Dr. Blare had refused to join the Antarctic expedition was sensational news.
The characteristic antecedents of adverbial apposition are abstract names of adverbial relations, such as time, moment, place, condition, purpose, etc. Cf.:
We saw him at the moment he was opening the door of his Cadillac. They did it with the purpose that no one else might share the responsibility for the outcome of the venture.
As is seen from the examples, these appositive clauses serve a mixed or double function, i. e. a function constituting a mixture of nominal and adverbial properties. They may be tested by transforming them into the corresponding adverbial clauses through the omission of the noun-antecedent and, if necessary, the introduction of conjunctive adverbialisers. Cf.:
... → We saw him as he was opening the door of his Cadillac. ... → They did it so that no one else might share the responsibility for the outcome of the venture.
Appositive clauses of pronominal relation refer to an antecedent expressed by an indefinite or demonstrative pronoun. The constructions serve as informatively limiting and attention-focusing means in contrast to the parallel non-appositive constructions. Cf.:
I couldn't agree with all that she was saying in her irritation. → I couldn't agree with what she was saying in her irritation. (Limitation is expressed.) That which did strike us was the inspector's utter ignorance of the details of the case. → What did strike us was the inspector's utter ignorance of the details of the case. (The utterances are practically equivalent, the one with a clausal apposition being somewhat more intense in its delimitation of the desired focus of attention.)
Appositive clauses of anticipatory relation are used in constructions with the anticipatory pronoun (namely, the anticipatory it, occasionally the demonstratives this, that). There are two varieties of these constructions — subjective and objective. The subjective clausal apposition is by far the basic one, both in terms of occurrence (it affects all the notional verbs of the vocabulary, not only transitive) and functional range (it possesses a universal sentence-transforming force). Thus, the objective anticipatory apposition is always interchangeable with the subjective anticipatory apposition, but not vice versa. Cf.:
I would consider it (this) a personal offence if they didn't accept the forwarded invitation. → It would be a personal offence (to me) if they didn't accept the forwarded invitation. You may depend on it that the letters won't be left unanswered. → It may be depended on that the letters won't be left unanswered.
The anticipatory appositive constructions, as is widely known, constitute one of the most peculiar typological features of English syntax. Viewed as part of the general appositive clausal system here presented, it is quite clear that the exposure of their appositive nature does not at all contradict their anticipatory interpretation, nor does it mar or diminish their "idiomatically English" property so emphatically pointed out in grammar books.
The unique role of the subjective anticipatory appositive construction, as has been stated elsewhere, consists in the fact that it is used as a universal means of rheme identification in the actual division of the sentence.