nominative absolute

American  

noun

Grammar.

1. a construction consisting in English of a noun, noun phrase, or pronoun in the nominative case followed by a predicate lacking a finite verb, used as a loose modifier of the whole sentence, as the play done in The play done, the audience left the theater.

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Etymology

Origin of nominative absolute

First recorded in 1835–45; by analogy with ablative absolute

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

nominative absolute

Examine the nominative absolute construction in st. xiv and xxxix.

From Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book I by Edmund Spenser

The nominative of direct address, and phrases in the nominative absolute construction are cut off by commas.

From English: Composition and Literature by W. F. (William Franklin) Webster

Other idioms, which have generally been confounded with those last mentioned, have the indeterminate pronoun preceded by a nominative absolute.

From Early English Alliterative Poems in the West-Midland Dialect of the Fourteenth Century by Richard Morris

A real nominative absolute is as illogical as a real accusative case governing a verb.

From A Handbook of the English Language by R. G. (Robert Gordon) Latham

Say, "This rule is often infringed by an improper use of the nominative absolute;" for this is precisely what these authors mean.

From The Grammar of English Grammars by Goold Brown

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