Nineteenth-century grammars typically classified nouns as being
"subjective" "objective, or "possessive"; the noun at the beginning of
an average absolute phrase isn't either of these, so it got its own
label (typically, nominals that function primarily adverbially, like
"yesterday," would be considered adverbs in these grammars, so they
weren't the same kind of problem for the authors).  Harvey 1869.74-5,
for example, lists "nominative, objective, possessive, and absolute" as
the English noun cases. He used the same trick, however, to deal with
"vocatives" in initial position. His example is, "Your *fathers*, where
are they?" 

Now, the practice may well have been borrowed from Latin, but I'd also
want to check to see if the *modern* term for the Latin construction
wasn't based on the same kind of logic. Did Priscian refer to those
constructions as ablative absolutes (or rather, the Latin equivalent),
or did the *label* "ablative absolute" develop in English grammars of
Latin?

Bill Spruiell

Dept. of English
Central Michigan University

-----Original Message---
From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jane Saral
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 4:00 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: absolute phrases?

My understanding is that the name comes from the Latin ablative
absolute, which consists of a noun and an adjectival form.

Jane Saral
The Westminster Schools
Atlanta, GA

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