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Panda blue 483 Posted 8 years ago
Grammar

Type of usage/sentence structure.

The angry driver pulled alongside the cyclist, hands sweating at the wheel.

"hands sweating at the wheel" is an adverbial phrase that described how he pulled alongside the cyclist.

Versus:

I look forward to the holidays/trying to prepare.

So this should be 'I look forward to the holidays, and I'm trying to prepare.



What is the distinction here between: trying to prepare and hands sweating at the wheel. They are both adverbial phrases 'right' but one needs a conjunction the other doesn't.


  

Top answer

"Hands sweating at the wheel" is, if I'm not mistaken, an absolute phrase. " It sort of stands alone, either introducing the main clause or coming at the end, and it works to add more detail to the sentence overall.

— Mr D

  • "Hands sweating at the wheel" is, if I'm not mistaken, an absolute phrase.
  • " It sort of stands alone, either introducing the main clause or coming at the end, and it works to add more detail to the sentence overall.
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2 Answers
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"Hands sweating at the wheel" is, if I'm not mistaken, an absolute phrase. An absolute phrase works a little differently in that it doesn't require a conjunction of any kind and it doesn't modify anything in the "main clause." It sort of stands alone, either introducing the main clause or coming at the end, and it works to add more detail to the sentence overall.
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The angry driver pulled alongside the cyclist, hands sweating at the wheel.

I agree with Mr D. The underlined element is an absolute clause, a non-finite clause functioning as a supplement.

It's called an absolute because it has a subject ("hands"), it is subordinate in form, and it has no syntactic link to the main clause. Other examples include:

H

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