Ablativus absolutus, if you're more Latin-oriented. ==Reinhold "Richard Veit, UNCW English Department" wrote: > > 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 To join or leave this LISTSERV list, please visit the list's web interface at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/ateg.html and select "Join or leave the list" Visit ATEG's web site at http://ateg.org/