In the previous chapter, the relation of apposition was discussed in terms of the syntactic characteristics that typify the units of an apposition. In this chapter, the focus shifts from the syntactic structure of units in apposition to their semantic structure.

The semantic relationship between units in apposition can be described in a variety of ways. The two units of an apposition can be characterized by the semantic relations existing between them, relations that are either referential (3.1.1) or non-referential (3.1.2). In addition, appositions can be classified into various semantic classes, depending upon whether the second unit of the apposition provides information about the first that is more specific (3.2.1), less specific (3.2.2), or equally specific (3.2.3). In appositions containing first units that are noun phrases, the apposition can be categorized according to whether or not the second unit of the apposition restricts the reference of the first unit (3.3). And finally, appositions form semantic gradients (3.4), with some appositions being semantically more appositional than others.

The semantic relations between units in apposition

Traditionally, apposition has been considered a relation consisting of two units that are coreferential (cf., for instance, Fries 1952:187, Hockett 1955:101, Quirk et al. 1985:1301, and Burton-Roberts 1975). However, as is argued in Meyer (1987a), not all constructions considered appositions in the literature consist of units that are coreferential, and to restrict the relation of apposition to only those constructions whose units are coreferential severely limits the number of constructions that can be admitted as appositions.