Dear Jansy,

It's funny, but I never noticed these whatchamacallums in relation to Humbert, but Humbert did himself use them in describing his wife, Charlotte. One of the highlights of Stanley Kubrick's film is when Charlotte, played by the incomparable (hmm) Shelley Winters, finds Humbert's 'journal' and reads his descriptions of her (there were a series, "the big momma" is the one that sticks in my mind).

What a performance.

Carolyn

I googled "appositive phrase" and it's not quite what we are talking about [ex.: "the cockroach, an insect ..." - I kid you not, google it and see]. Perhaps someone more grammatically knowledgeable can enlighten us.

Well, googling further, I found part of the answer: Appositive phrases are like the “stunt doubles” of English. They act as the same person, doing the job the original couldn’t. Take this sentence, for example: Jack, the barber, had cut Bobby’s hair. The noun is “Jack,” and the appositive phrase is “the barber.” By just using the word “Jack,” the writer doesn’t tell that Jack is a barber. So, because the original “actor,” couldn’t perform that scene, the “double” had to fill in.

But the "best answer" is: