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only to the predicate verb, and the nominal element is related to the participle.
The nominative absolute participial construction functions syntactically as an adverbial modifier: an
adverbial modifier of a) attendant circumstances, b) reason, c) occasionally time.
a) Llewellyn looked through the window, his glance travelling towards the bridge.
Mabel hurried out of the car and walked away, tears streaming down her face.
We were both standing leaning against the mantelpiece, she admirng her fan of blotting paper, I staring
at her.
A nominative absolute participial construction as an adverbial of attendant circumstances usually stands in
postposition, and is widely used in literature.
It is translated into Russian by a coordinate clause: Мы оба стояли у камина; она любовалась веером из
промокательной бумаги, а я глядел на нее.
b) But I was a little on edge, there being something to report.
The ship’s band did not play in the morning, it being Sunday.
c) The work being finished, the two girls went into the shop.
Sentences with a nominative absolute participial construction as an adverbial of reason or time are translated
by complex sentences with the corresponding subordinate clauses:
Я нервничал, так как было о чем
сообщить... Когда работа была закончена, девушки вошли в мастерскую.
As well as in sentences with participial phrases causal and temporal meanings may be combined, as in:
Ice having thus been broken, the two former rivals grew still more affectionate.
Prepositional absolute participial construction with participle I
A prepositional absolute construction differs from a non-prepositional participial construction in that it is
introduced by the preposition with. Its nominal part is usually a noun in the common case, or very rarely a
personal pronoun in the objective case. It is not necessarily set off by a comma:
Andrew went into the house with his heart beating fast.
The main syntactical function of the construction is an adverbial modifier of attendant circumstances, as
in:
The officer sat with his long fine hands lying on the table perfectly still.
The meaning of attendant circumstances may be combined with temporal or causal ones:
I won’t speak with him staring at me like that.
Just now, with the harvest coming on, everything looks its richest.
It (St. John’s Wood) is ever so pretty with all the trees coming out.
The construction is usually translated into Russian by a coordinate or a subordinate clause, and sometimes
by means of a prepositional phrase, or an adverbial participle (деепричастие).
(Когда) Эндрю вошел в дом, сердце его сильно билось (с бьющимся сердцем).
Теперь, когда приближается время жатвы, все так красиво.
Participle I and the gerund compared
§ 139. Participle I and the gerund are alike in their verbal characteristics, both morphological (the categories