ABSOLUTE CONSTRUCTION
399. We have found that every word in a sentence bears some relation to every other word, except these words which we have been studying, which we use independently. These explanatory words which we have just been studying are not used independently, but do in a sense modify the noun with which they are placed in apposition. Sometimes we place a noun or a pronoun and its modifiers alongside the whole sentence and it does not really modify any part of the sentence, but modifies the whole sentence in a way, for it expresses an attendant thought or an accompanying circumstance. For example:
- The workers being unorganized, the strike was easily defeated.
- The strikers having won, work was resumed on their terms.
The workers being unorganised and the strikers having won are not clauses for they do not contain a verb. Being unorganized and having won are participles. Neither do they modify any word in the sentence. They are not placed in apposition with any other word. While they do express a thought in connection with the sentence, in construction they seem to be cut loose from the rest of the sentence; that is, they are not closely connected with the sentence, hence they are called absolute constructions. Ab means from, and solute, loose; so this means, literally, loose from the rest of the sentence.
We speak of these as absolute constructions, instead of independent, because the thought expressed is connected with the main thought of the sentence and is really a part of it. Notice that the noun used in the absolute construction is not the subject of the sentence.
Take the sentence, The workers being unorganized, the strike was easily defeated, the noun strike is the subject of the sentence, and the noun workers is used in the absolute construction with the participle, being unorganized.
These absolute constructions can ordinarily be rewritten into adverb clauses. For example, this sentence might read: The strike was easily defeated because the workers were unorganized. Do not make the mistake of rewriting your sentences and using the noun in the absolute construction as the subject of the sentence. For example:
- The workers, being unorganized, were easily defeated.
This is not the meaning of this sentence. The meaning of the sentence is that the strike was easily defeated because the workers were unorganized. But the adverb clause, because the workers were unorganized, instead of being written as an adverb clause, has been written in the absolute construction, the workers being unorganized.
While it is nearly always possible to change these absolute constructions into adverb clauses the sentences are sometimes weakened by the change. These absolute constructions often enable us to make a statement in a stronger manner than we could make it with a clause or in any other way.