Absolute Phrases are Great – Now That I Understand Them

Unfortunately, my worst skill set is grammar, as I’m sure many of you already know. The good news is that I am constantly trying to improve (by researching and doing). Those pesky things like modifiers, gerunds, participles, and thousands of others give me headaches to no end. My inexperience in these matters leads to frustration, and if I’m not careful, a total lack of consciousness (I doze often when I get bored).

But, hey, there are grammar-related things that do actually pique my interest. For instance, the absolute phrase (or nominative absolute) is one that does so. Why? Because they do make for interesting reading, and because Arthur Plotnik recommends them.

You might be wondering who Arthur Plotnik is, right? The February edition of The Writer contains an article titled “The ‘absolute’ advantage” where he discusses this often-misunderstood phrase.  This article is where I first began to understand what the absolute phrase is really about (and is the reason for this post). He took a somewhat complicated matter and condensed it into something that even I could understand, so thanks, Arthur!

***Update: You can read more about Arthur Plotnik through this recent post.***

What is an Absolute Phrase?

Let’s get right down to it. Arthur Plotnik states that:

“…these critters offer a lyrical way to vary sentence structure. Often they bring literary quality to pedestrian constructions…”

As an example, he provides these sentences:

The Boring way: “The book was written, so she took a drink, with her head already in a spin.”

The Interesting Way: “The book written, she took a drink, her head already in a spin.” (italics indicate the phrases)

The Key Points

• It can consist of just a subject and a participle
• The do not modify any particular word, but instead, they modify the entire sentence to provide more information to the reader
• Absolute phrases are set off by commas

More Examples

• "Their reputation as winners secured by victory, the New York Liberty charged into the semifinals."
• "The season nearly finished, Rebecca Lobo and Sophie Witherspoon emerged as true leaders."
• "The two superstars signed autographs into the night, their faces beaming happily."

The above three examples were taken from The Garden of Phrases.

If you want a very thorough definition of what an absolute phrase is, I’d suggest you visit the link above. Be warned that you’ll have to set your mind in the learning mode to really understand it (or at least I did).

Were you already aware of this particular phrase? I’ve heard of it in the past, but never really paid it any mind. It wasn’t until I read Plotnik’s article that I really began to see how useful they are.

Have you ever used these effectively in your writing? If so, how about sharing?

Comments

[Bryan Catherman]

This is a great tip. I always recommend Patricia T. O'Conner to people looking for writing info.

"Woe is I: The Grammarphobe's Guide to Better English in Plain English" is a quick read and an easy reference guide. "Words Fail Me: What Everyone Who Writes Should Know About Writing" is a must read for any writer.

I post tips extracted from these books (and sometimes from this site) on the Hopless Writer Blog (http://catherman.blogspot.com)