[Grammar] [absolute clause] I refusing to play/I escaping from the fight/showing her my car

[hhtt21]

In this thread, I would like to ask about "absolute clause", or "nominative absolute". I tried to create some examples. If they are wrong or bad examples, I will be sorry for that, but I believe even though they are wrong or bad, you can easily correct them.

1. Would you please explain what kind of meanings "I refusing to play" does add to the sentence? What are the aspects of "I refusing to play", that is does it introduce an "order of events" or how something happens or a reason, or a result?

"I refusing to play, George played basketball alone."

 

[GoesStation]

It's ungrammatical. Do you mean "I refused to play, so George played basketball alone"?

 

[hhtt21]

It's ungrammatical. Do you mean "I refused to play, so George played basketball alone"?

Yes, but why is it ungrammatical? There is a similar example in The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar: "I refusing to go, Nicholas went alone"

 

[GoesStation]

Yes, but why is it ungrammatical? There is a similar example in The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar: "I refusing to go, Nicholas went alone"

Your sentence and the Oxford one are so unnatural that it's hard to see that they're grammatical. I can't imagine a native speaker ever producing either sentence.

 

[Tarheel]

Try:

Because I refused to go, Nicholas went alone.

 

[hhtt21]

Your sentence and the Oxford one are so unnatural that it's hard to see that they're grammatical. I can't imagine a native speaker ever producing either sentence.

But "absolute constructions" except for some fixed expressions such as "weather permitting", "present company excepted", etc are generally formal, written and literary in still. Is your remark related to this fact?

 

[GoesStation]

But "absolute constructions" except for some fixed expressions such as "weather permitting", "present company excepted", etc are generally formal, written and literary in [STRIKE]still[/STRIKE] style. Is your remark related to this fact?

No. Nobody would use such sentences in any context. Other sentences with similar constructions are possible, though, like Susan being ill, John went alone. It's the first-person pronoun that makes the other sentences so unnatural.

 

[Phaedrus]

In this thread, I would like to ask about "absolute clause", or "nominative absolute". I tried to create some examples. If they are wrong or bad examples, I will be sorry for that, but I believe even though they are wrong or bad, you can easily correct them.

1. Would you please explain what kind of meanings "I refusing to play" does add to the sentence? What are the aspects of "I refusing to play", that is does it introduce an "order of events" or how something happens or a reason, or a result?

"I refusing to play, George played basketball alone."

If I were to use that extremely formal construction, I'd probably use one of the following variations instead:

I having refused to play with him, George played basketball alone.

or:

George played basketball alone, I having refused to play with him.

or:

Nobody wanting to play with him, George played basketball alone.

Compare:

"A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed."

 

[emsr2d2]

The only way I can see to make that vaguely usable would be to add a comma and change the end.

I, having refused to play with him, left George to play basketball alone.

The main problem with the example (I'd still like to see a link to or screenshot of that example) is that there is no main verb linked to "I".

 

[Phaedrus]

The only way I can see to make that vaguely usable would be to add a comma and change the end.

I, having refused to play with him, left George to play basketball alone.

The main problem with the example (I'd still like to see a link to or screenshot of that example) is that there is no main verb linked to "I".

There's no grammatical problem with the example sentence: "I refusing to play, George played basketball alone." It's just stilted and old-fashioned.

In nominative absolute clauses, the form of the verb is nonfinite. That being said, I shall be quiet.

 

[jutfrank]

Find some other examples, hhtt21. And remember not to make up your own.