Appositional phrase

Device
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A renaming or redefining phrase set beside the term it modifies, common in epic poetry

Detailed Definition
Appositional phrase is a grammatical construction where two noun phrases sit side by side, with the second renaming or explicating the first (e.g., “my friend, the poet”); in poetry, apposition creates density and immediacy by layering identity or imagery without connective verbs, enhancing concision and symbolic resonance.
Example
Example in poetry:
Appositional phrases rename nouns for emphasis: “My brother, a soldier, returned home”; in Shakespeare: “This royal throne of kings, this scepter’d isle”; Emily Dickinson: “The Soul selects her own Society— / Then—shuts the Door—”; Appositional phrases add descriptive layers without verbs; they appear in epic catalogs and modernist fragmentation
Additional Notes
Appositional phrase: A noun phrase placed beside another to rename or clarify it; in poetry, can create layered meaning or syntactic density; often used in epic epithets or modernist fragmentation.
Also Known As
Skip to main content