🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <921118.144526.oprytz@pchf112>, oprytz@ulrik.uio.no (Otto Prytz) writes:
> 
> In Spanish, in "absolute" clauses, the subject of an infinitive or a gerund
> is clearly nominative: "No digas tales palabras, estando _yo_ aqui'" =
> "Don't say such words, _i_ being here".

Very interesting.  There is, of course, no logical reason why nominatives
cannot occur in absolute constructions, and your example shows that they
do -- in Spanish, anyway.

> But there is much to be said about the term "absolute". In Latin,
> I think the verb form used in absolute clauses was always a 
> participle, i.e. an _adjectival_ form. The English -ing form can be
> taken as adjectival or adverbial.

The Latin construction consisted of an NP + *either* participle, adjective,
or NP.  Latin permitted sentences such as

	Te  duce,  vincemus.  'With you as leader, we will conquer.'
	you leader

I don't see what you would gain by making the English participle adverbial,
and the morphology does not suggest it (some of the more adjectival parti-
ciples form adverbs by adding -ly, e.g. _knowingly_, _comnceitedly_).

--Leo Connolly