Ron and Hermione joined Neville, Seamus, and Dean the West Ham fan up in the top row. ... ...
I don't know how to parse the sentence correctly, hence I'm not sure what it means.
-- Excerpted from Harry Potter.
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Sign up to join this communityRon and Hermione joined Neville, Seamus, and Dean the West Ham fan up in the top row. ... ...
I don't know how to parse the sentence correctly, hence I'm not sure what it means.
-- Excerpted from Harry Potter.
A person named Ron and a person named Hermione moved to the location of a group. This group was composed of a person named Neville, a person named Seamus and a person named Dean (who was a fan of something called West Ham). The group was located in the row [of chairs or standing spaces] that was highest of all rows.
"the West Ham fan" is an appositive describing Dean. Appositives are usually surrounded by commas.
Neville, Seamus, and Dean were in the top (highest/farthest back) row. Ron and Hermione went to go sit/stand with them. West Ham is a soccer team in England, and Dean is a fan of them.
The sentence would be more clear if it read:
Ron and Hermione joined Neville, Seamus, and Dean, the West Ham fan, up in the top row.
the West Ham fan is a noun-phrase standing in apposition with "Dean". The apposition is usually set off with commas:
He phoned Jones, the doctor on call, to notify him of the emergency.