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A Koine Greek grammar states that nouns in simple apposition are semantically understood as predicate nominatives.

So, "Paul the apostle" unpacks to "Paul is the apostle" and "the apostle is Paul" and is a reciprocating proposition.

The grammarian says:

The appositive functions very much like a PN in a convertible proposition— that is, it refers to the same thing as the first noun. The difference, however, is that a PN makes an assertion about the S (an equative verb is either stated or implied); with appositives there is assumption, not assertion (no verb is in mind).

Does English work this way as well?

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    Depends on what you mean by "unpacking", which is just the Conduit Metaphor. Certainly appositives, like relative clauses, are presupposed, so one could conclude that Paul was the apostle from an appositive Paul the apostle; but that's not the same thing as asserting that sentence, and what's said versus what's taken for granted is rather the problem in translating ancient texts. – jlawler May 25 at 20:44
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    That's approximately what I said, except I used the technical term presupposition instead of the more vague assumption – jlawler May 30 at 22:01
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    Again, more or less. Presuppositions are part of Pragmatics, which is about context and how it provides most of our understanding; Pragmatics expands on Semantics, which is in fact related to logic, but much more complex. – jlawler May 31 at 1:40
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    @jlawler I have been looking for something like in your paper! Thank you! I need to digest it. It looks like a systematic way to diagram a sentence and much more. – user27672 May 31 at 2:01
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    Well, the Verb Phrase Guide, which follows the logic guide, goes into that. – jlawler May 31 at 2:03

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