0

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.

Improve this question
3
  • 1
    "... and Dean (the West Ham fan) up in the top row."
    – Andrew
    Oct 12, 2018 at 15:36
  • The sentence could be misinterpreted as "and Dean (the West Ham fan up in the top row)." Additional commas would help: Ron and Hermione joined Neville, Seamus, and Dean, the West Ham fan, up in the top row.
    – Jason Bassford
    Oct 12, 2018 at 16:21
  • "Ron had already had a big argument with Dean Thomas, who shared their dormitory, about football. Ron couldn’t see what was exciting about a game with only one ball where no one was allowed to fly. Harry had caught Ron prodding Dean’s poster of West Ham football team, trying to make the players move." - From a few chapters before...
    – Richard
    Oct 12, 2018 at 16:29

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
4

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.

Improve this answer
2
  • 2
    West Ham is the name of a prominent football Team in the London area, and almost all British readers would immediately understand "the West Ham fan".
    – Colin Fine
    Oct 12, 2018 at 13:38
  • 2
    @Colin Fine: And most British readers "of a certain age" would also recognise that West Ham fans in particular had a reputation for violence against supporters of rival teams (esp Millwall, a rivalry that goes back generations). But I don't suppose for one moment that Rowling had that allusion in mind - nor would many of her target audience (younger) readers pick up on it.
    – FumbleFingers
    Oct 12, 2018 at 14:07
2

"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.

Improve this answer
1

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.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .