An appositive (or appositional) phrase may be considered a form of adjective clause. The apposition is a noun (or sometimes a pronoun) that, by itself or accompanied by an attribute (adjective), is joined to another noun in order to better describe it. An appositive (or appositional) phrase is a phrase that, referring to a noun, specifies it. An appositive phrase may be considered a changed form of an adjective clause.
La
petite fille, la seule dans l'autobus, oublia de descendre à son
arrêt.
(The little girl, the only one in the bus, forgot to get out at
her stop.)
The phrase the only one in the bus is the appositive phrase.
Single nouns can function as appositives:
Voltaire, poète, penseur, moraliste, eut une très grande
influence sur ses contemporains.
(Voltaire, poet, thinker, moralist, had a great influence on his
contemporaries.)
Each of the nouns "poet," "thinker," "moralist" is an appositive, or, as is often said, "a noun in apposition" with the subject, Voltaire.
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