+399.+ We have found that every word in a sentence bears some relation
to every other word, except these words which we have been studying,
which we use independently. These explanatory words which we have just
been studying are not used independently, but do in a sense modify the
noun with which they are placed in apposition. Sometimes we place a noun
or a pronoun and its modifiers alongside the whole sentence and it does
not really modify any part of the sentence, but modifies the whole
sentence in a way, for it expresses an attendant thought or an
accompanying circumstance. For example:
The workers being unorganized, the strike was easily defeated.
The strikers having won, work was resumed on their terms.
_The workers being unorganised_ and _the strikers having won_ are not
clauses for they do not contain a verb. _Being unorganized_ and _having
won_ are participles. Neither do they modify any word in the sentence.
They are not placed in apposition with any other word. While they do
express a thought in connection with the sentence, in construction they
seem to be cut loose from the rest of the sentence; that is, they are
not closely connected with the sentence, hence they are called absolute
constructions. _Ab_ means from, and _solute_, loose; so this means,
literally, loose from the rest of the sentence.
We speak of these as absolute constructions, instead of independent,
because the thought expressed is connected with the main thought of the
sentence and is really a part of it. Notice that the noun used in the
absolute construction is not the _subject_ of the sentence.
Take the sentence, _The workers being unorganized, the strike was_
_easily defeated_, the noun _strike_ is the subject of the sentence, and
the noun _workers_ is used in the absolute construction with the
participle, _being unorganized_.
These absolute constructions can ordinarily be rewritten into adverb
clauses. For example, this sentence might read: _The strike was easily
defeated because the workers were unorganized_. Do not make the mistake
of rewriting your sentences and using the noun in the absolute
construction as the subject of the sentence. For example:
The workers, being unorganized, were easily defeated.
This is not the meaning of this sentence. The meaning of the sentence is
that the _strike_ was easily defeated _because_ the workers were
unorganized. But the adverb clause, _because the workers were
unorganized_, instead of being written as an adverb clause, has been
written in the absolute construction, _the workers being unorganized_.
While it is nearly always possible to change these absolute
constructions into adverb clauses the sentences are sometimes weakened
by the change. These absolute constructions often enable us to make a
statement in a stronger manner than we could make it with a clause or in
any other way.