英语里同位语也是一种名词修饰语，单词、短语和从句都可用作同位语，最简单而又常见的同位语是位于所修饰的先行词之后，用来说明身份、职务、称号等的名词或名词短语。下面就从同位语的引导方式、同位语的构成来谈谈英语同位语。
一、同位语的引导方式
1．通常用逗号将同位语与其所修饰的先行词隔开，表示一种普通的同位关系。如：
A．This is Mr．Black，director of our hospital．
B．She is a good teacher，the friend of yours．
2．有时也可用破折号或冒号引导同位语，用破折号，停顿较长，对同位语起强调的作用；用冒号，停顿最长，强调的作用更大。
A．The orphan's daily necessities—clothes，food， etc．—are supplied by a kind-hearted teacher．
B．In a sense nouns can be divided into two kinds：the countable noun and the uncountable noun．
3．有时同位语之前带有引导词，表示同位成分之间的特殊意义。常见的同位语引导词有as，or，chiefly， especially，for example，for instance，in short，mainly，mostly，namely，that is，in particular，in other words，including， that is to say，such as，say，particularly，what，which，who，when，where， why，how，that，whether等。例如：
A．There remains only one problem，namely who they should send to head the research there．
B．Did he give you a pound，or a hundred pence？
C．A lot of people here，for example，John，would rather have coffee．
D．I have no idea what has happened to him．
4．另外，无需借用任何引导词或标点符号，而将同位语直接置于先行词之后。
A．I have the honor to introduce John's sister Jane to you．
B．Tom gave his friend John a book．
二、同位语的构成
1．名词及其短语（有时有逗号隔开）
A．George Bush，the present American president，was the governor of the state of Texas．
B．I want very much to read these new novels，especially the one you mentioned．
2．动名词短语（有逗号隔开）
A．He enjoys the exercise，swimming in winter．
B．Asking him to join us，that's a good idea．
3．不定式短语（有时有逗号隔开）
A．There is one thing he'll never do—tell lies．
B．The question what to do next hasn't been considered．
4．形容词及其短语（有逗号隔开）
A．He，short and thin，is unfit for the job．
B．All the countries，big or small，are equal．
5．介词短语（有时有逗号隔开）
As the head of the company，he had to explain what had happened．＝He，the head of the company，had to ex- plain what had happened．
6．名词性从句（其前面的先行词一般都带有定冠词the）。这样的先行词有fact，news，truth，knowledge， idea，hope，question，problem，assumption等。例如：
A．You have yet to answer my question whether you can lend me your bike．
B．They had to face the fact that the nearest filling station is 30kilometers away．
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