Identify the appositive in this sentence: "i am selling my car, a 1965 mustang, for $500 and a bag of potato chips."

a 1965 Mustang

An appositive is a phrase that interrupts a sentence to clarify a noun. In this sentence, the appositive "a 1965 Mustang" is used to clarify the type of car or which car he is selling. We often use appositives to rename nouns. For example, My sister, Kate, is 3 years old. In this sentence the appositive clarifies which sister. An appositive phrase is always set off with commas. This is a great way to identify appositives because they are in the middle of commas.

usually, a falcon can kill an owl, and horses don't normally eat each other.

the sentence does not violate the phrase structure second rule (introduced by noam chomsky) because noun phrases consist of a determiner such as a, the or every, and a noun. in the sentence, the noun phrase the cake includes a determiner (the) and a noun (cake).

on the other hand, the first rule indicates that a sentence encloses a noun phrase, followed by a verb phrase. the example sentence can be analysed as follows:

john (n) + ate (v) + the (det) + cake (n).