Plain English

In this sentence, woman is the noun placed in apposition to the particular name, Helen Keller, and the noun woman is modified by the adjectives the, and wonderful, and by the phrase of this age.

Sometimes a second explanatory word is placed in apposition to the first one. This is quite often the case in legal documents or resolutions, where the language is quite formal. For example:

We, the undersigned, members of Local No. 38, do hereby move, etc.

I, John Smith, Notary Public, in and for the county of Clay, etc.

These words, undersigned and members, are both placed in apposition to the pronoun We, explaining to whom that pronoun refers.

Exercise 5

In the following sentences note the explanatory words and their modifiers:

1. Wendell Phillips, the great abolitionist, was a man of genius.

2. Buckle, the historian, writes from the view point of the materialistic conception of history.

3. Giovannitti, the poet, wrote "Arrows in the Gale."

4. Helen Keller, champion of the working class, wrote the introduction to this book.

5. We, the workers of the world, will some day claim our own.

6. He was found guilty of treason, a crime punishable by death.

7. Ferrer, the martyr of the twentieth century, was put to death by the Spanish government.

8. Jaures, the great French socialist, was the first martyr to peace.

9. But ye, Plebs, Populace, People, Rabble, Mob, Proletariat, live and abide forever.

10. Ye are eternal, even as your father, labor, is eternal.

11. This document, the Constitution of the United States, hinders the progress of the people.

12. The memory of Guttenberg, the inventor of the printing press, should be reverenced by every class-conscious worker.

13. Wallace, the scientist and author, was co-discoverer with Darwin of the theory of evolution.

14. Karl Marx, the thinker, applied this theory to social forces.

15. Do you understand the three basic principles of Socialism—the class struggle, economic determinism and surplus value?

Exercise 6

Read the following list of words and note the ideas which they suggest to you, then make sentences containing these words, modified by a word or group of words in apposition, which explain more fully these words.

Law, martyr, society, education, inventor, commander, freedom, Eugene V. Debs, Karl Marx, Kaiser Wilhelm, The Balkan, Lawrence, Colorado, Calumet.

ABSOLUTE CONSTRUCTION

399. We have found that every word in a sentence bears some relation to every other word, except these words which we have been studying, which we use independently. These explanatory words which we have just been studying are not used independently, but do in a sense modify the noun with which they are placed in apposition. Sometimes we place a noun or a pronoun and its modifiers alongside the whole sentence and it does not really modify any part of the sentence, but modifies the whole sentence in a way, for it expresses an attendant thought or an accompanying circumstance. For example:

The workers being unorganized, the strike was easily defeated.

The strikers having won, work was resumed on their terms.

The workers being unorganised and the strikers having won are not clauses for they do not contain a verb. Being unorganized and having won are participles. Neither do they modify any word in the sentence. They are not placed in apposition with any other word. While they do express a thought in connection with the sentence, in construction they seem to be cut loose from the rest of the sentence; that is, they are not closely connected with the sentence, hence they are called absolute constructions. Ab means from, and solute, loose; so this means, literally, loose from the rest of the sentence.

We speak of these as absolute constructions, instead of independent, because the thought expressed is connected with the main thought of the sentence and is really a part of it. Notice that the noun used in the absolute construction is not the subject of the sentence.

Take the sentence, The workers being unorganized, the strike waseasily defeated, the noun strike is the subject of the sentence, and the noun workers is used in the absolute construction with the participle, being unorganized.

These absolute constructions can ordinarily be rewritten into adverb clauses. For example, this sentence might read: The strike was easily defeated because the workers were unorganized. Do not make the mistake of rewriting your sentences and using the noun in the absolute construction as the subject of the sentence. For example:

The workers, being unorganized, were easily defeated.

This is not the meaning of this sentence. The meaning of the sentence is that the strike was easily defeated because the workers were unorganized. But the adverb clause, because the workers were unorganized, instead of being written as an adverb clause, has been written in the absolute construction, the workers being unorganized.

While it is nearly always possible to change these absolute constructions into adverb clauses the sentences are sometimes weakened by the change. These absolute constructions often enable us to make a statement in a stronger manner than we could make it with a clause or in any other way.

Exercise 7

In the following sentences, note the groups of words which are used in absolute construction. Rewrite these sentences and if possible change these words used in absolute construction into equivalent adverb phrases or clauses. Note how some of the sentences are weakened when you make this change.

1. Nationalism having been taught to generation after generation, the workers obeyed the call of the master class to slaughter their fellow workers.

2. The hour having arrived, Ferrer was blindfolded and led forth to die.

3. The mass being without education, capitalism gains an easy victory.

4. The class struggle being a fact, why should we hesitate to join our class?

5. These facts being true, such a conclusion is inevitable.

6. Darwin having stated the theory of evolution, Marx applied its principles to social science.

7. Chattel slavery having been destroyed, wage-slavery became the corner stone of capitalism.

8. The price having been paid, we claim our own.

9. The battle ended, the army left the trenches.

Exercise 8

Mark the interjections in the following quotations. Note the independent constructions. Mark the words used as explanatory words in apposition.

In the mind's eye, I see a wonderful building, something like the Coliseum of ancient Rome. The galleries are black with people; tier upon tier rise like waves the multitude of spectators who have come to see a great contest. A great contest, indeed! A contest in which all the world and all the centuries are interested. It is the contest—the fight to death—between Truth and Error.