Is "This Noun Phrase" Apposition With She?

Question

A strong woman who recklessly throws away her strength, she is worse than a week woman who has never had any strength to throw away.

?Tess of the D'Ubervilles / Thomas Hardy

Could it be that "A strong woman who recklessly throws away her strength" is apposition with she?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

anonymousCould it be that "A strong woman who recklessly throws away her strength" is apposition with she?

It could be.

But I am more inclined to treat this as a stylistic flourish of Mr. Hardy's.

The comma and "she" would be omitted in expository writing, where a conservative approach to grammar is expected, but in creative writing such as we have here, it's not uncommon to deviate here and there from the norms, and perhaps in this case, it's a way of keeping us in the setting of the novel by using the speech patterns of the people who live there.

I question whether it's worth agonizing over a grammatical label such as 'apposition' for such constructions, as they are clearly not central examples of any particular grammatical phenomenon. The less charitable might even say that they're simply mistakes.

CJ

'weak woman', not 'week woman'.

Anonymous · Answer

anonymousA strong woman who recklessly throws away her strength, she is worse than a week woman who has never had any strength to throw away.

That is a misquotation, and it is from Madding Crowd, not from Tess. Don't trust the Internet (except for this forum). The actual line is "When a strong woman recklessly throws away her strength she is worse than a weak woman who has never had any strength to throw away." Your misquotation is marginally grammatical nonetheless. It sound like how a Frenchman would say it, though. I don't know what to call it.

Is "This Noun Phrase" Apposition With She?

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