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December 2000

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Subject:
My dog moaned, its tail stuck...
From:
"Richard Veit, UNCW English Department" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 4 Dec 2000 10:08:25 -0500
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At 02:22 AM 12/04/2000 -0500, Ed Vavra wrote:

>Question: Is the following sentence an example of a comma-splice, or an
>example of a well-written sentence?
>
>My dog moaned, its tail stuck between its back legs.

That's a pretty standard example of a "nominative absolute." That's the
term I learned in grade school in the fifties and find indexed in Roberts'
1954 Understanding Grammar. The term "absolute" is used in several more
recent grammar texts, but neither term is indexed in Greenbaum's Oxford
English Grammar. Curious minds wanting to know, is there other terminology
for such constructions?

Dick Veit

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