Confusion about appositives

[sudhanshu.jesthi]

Little confused after reading explanations
1) of Ron for the question:(viewtopic.php?f=31&t=2673&hilit=appositive)
2) and of JonathanSchneider for the question: (viewtopic.php?f=31&t=5751&p=21477&hilit=appositive#p21477)

Content of (viewtopic.php?f=31&t=2673&hilit=appositive)

The computer company has announced that it will purchase the color-printing division of a rival company for $950 million, which is part of a deal that will make it the largest manufacturer in the office color-printing market.
A) million, which is part of a deal that will make
B) million, a part of a deal that makes
C) million, part of a deal making
D) million as a part of a deal to make
E) million as part of a deal that will make


[Guest] What does "as part of" modify? The entire preceding clause?


[Ron_start]
yes.

if you wanted to modify just the preceding noun, you'd use the following type of structure:

three days ago he received a payment for $1000, part of the long-overdue pension that had been delayed for various bureaucratic reasons.

[Ron_end]

Content of ((viewtopic.php?f=31&t=5751&p=21477&hilit=appositive#p21477))

The loan company announced it would soon lend money to borrowers with proven records of their not paying back their loans on time, collectively known as the subprime lending market.

A.Of their not paying back their loans on time,
B.Of not paying back their loans on time, a group
C.Of not paying back their loans on time, with such a group
D.That they do not pay back their loans on time,
E.That they do not pay back their loans on time, such a group


JonathanSchneider : "Placing a noun after a comma (or in this case an article - "a" - and then a noun), followed by a modifier of that noun, is a great way to describe an idea from the preceding clause. This structure is known as an absolute phrase"

Example:

The scientists discovered whale-fish bones in the Arctic, findings that prove the existence of whale-fish.*

My Doubt: Are they both talking about appositives? Is absolute phrase is different from appositives?
Fot the second post, I thought "a group/Such a group" is appositive. if it indded is, then it is technically modifying "time", which is ligically incorrect.

Please help.
Thanks

[sudhanshu.jesthi]

Experts, Please reply

[RonPurewal]

i've never even heard the term "absolute phrase" before, so i'm the wrong guy to ask. maybe one of our other moderators would know.

in fact, though, this raises a very good point: you should not concentrate on naming things with linguistic terms. instead, you should just study the actual appearance of correct and incorrect constructions, and make analogies between the constructions you encounter in problems and those you've already studied.

for the most part, learning the names of these constructions is a waste of time, since naming them isn't going to help you get any better at judging whether they're correct.
in fact, concentrating excessively on linguistic terminology will almost certainly hinder your SC studies, because you're concentrating on the wrong thing (linguistic terms and nomenclature) rather than the right thing (what do correct and incorrect constructions look like?)

--

your use of "findings" before, and of other nouns like it, is sometimes MANDATORY in sentences in which you can't use a pronoun.
for instance:

* i only have one onion, which will make it impossible to cook this dish. --> wrong, because the onion doesn't make anything impossible.

* i only have one onion, and it will make it impossible to cook this dish. --> wrong, because the first "it" is trying to stand for the abstract notion of a shortage of onions, and pronouns aren't allowed to stand for anything but actual nouns from the sentence

* i only have one onion, a deficiency that will make it impossible to cook this dish. --> correct. the modifier "a deficiency" correctly modifies the deficiency described.

if you just study examples such as these - and the ones you've cited - then you'll have no need to name things. as someone who has scored 800 on this exam, even though i'd be lucky to know the grammatical names for even half of the constructions appearing on it, i can tell you that linguistic terminology - other than the basics, such as names of parts of speech, etc. - is not a valuable use of your time and effort.

[sudhanshu.jesthi]

many thanks Ron.
I must say that you Rock like a taximeter of the state Rajisthan, India

[JonathanSchneider]

: )

I'll be sure to let Ron know!

[xingym]

i only have one onion, and it will make it impossible to cook this dish. --> wrong, because the first "it" is trying to stand for the abstract notion of a shortage of onions, and pronouns aren't allowed to stand for anything but actual nouns from the sentence

"it" here would better stand for the infinitive- "to cook a dish", and "it" could also reprsent the clause in the sentence such as " it is nice to know that ....", not necessary the only actual nouns

The flaw here is that the onion itself can not make anything impossible.... is my understanding wrong?

[RonPurewal]

The flaw here is that the onion itself can not make anything impossible.... is my understanding wrong?

you are right.