Rectifying usage myths about correlative conjunctions and appositives - IV

This week, I’m presenting the final part of my discussion of the appositive or appositive phrase as a grammatical element that serves to define, modify, or amplify a noun or noun phrase beside it. This and last week’s discussion seek to rectify the contention of a member of Jose Carillo’s English Forum that it’s grammatically wrong to use commas to set off the proper noun “Mwita Chacha” in this lead sentence of a recent column of mine: “A Tanzania-based member of Jose Carillo’s English Forum, Mwita Chacha, recently related this very curious incident about the use of position titles.”

He argued that those commas render the sentence without a subject, and that the proper construction is to make the proper noun “Mwita Chacha” the subject instead. I clarified though that in that sentence, “Mwita Chacha” is a nonessential or nonrestrictive appositive, one that can very well be knocked off from that sentence. The noun phrase “a Tanzania-based member of Jose Carillo’s English Forum” would then become its grammatically valid and properly functioning subject: “A Tanzania-based member of Jose Carillo’s English Forum recently related this very curious incident about the use of position titles.”