2017-11-01
2697
| WAYS OF EXPRESSION | EXAMPLES |
| ADVERB | Rachel turned instinctively to prevent a possible intruder from entering. |
| NOUN (with or without accompanying words) | Nextday the morning hours seemed to pass very slowly. They walked miles without any rest. |
| PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE | I walked straight up the lane. |
| NOUN, PRONOUN, ADJECTIVE, PARTICIPLE OR PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE introduced by a subordinating conjunction | Mary swims better than her sister. Use it as prescribed. It’s cooler in the garden than in the house. |
| PARTICIPLE PARTICIPIAL PHRASE | Turning away, she caught sight of a new copy of the newspaper. |
| ABSOLUTE CONSTRUCTIONS · The Nominative Absolute Participial Construction · The Nominative Absolute Construction without a participle · The Prepositional Absolute Participial Construction · The Prepositional Absolute Construction without a participle | · The night being cold, we decided to make a fire. · He stopped and looked at us, his eyes very serious. · Mike looked at her attentively, with his heart beating fast. · He rushed forward, with a stick in his hand. |
| GERUND GERUNDIAL PHRASE GERUNDIAL CONSTRUCTION | His father looked up without speaking. In spite of never liking her, he agreed to help. I left the room without Mike’s noticing me. |
| INFINITIVE INFINITIVE PHRASE INFINITIVE CONSTRUCTION | He is too smart to fail. They rose to go into the drawing -room. He stepped aside for us to enter. |
DETACHED (LOOSE) PARTS OF THE SENTENCE
Detached parts of the sentence are those secondary parts which assume a certain grammatical and semantic independence. This phenomenon is due to their loose connection with the words they modify. Loose connection may be due to the position of these words, the way they are expressed, their meaning, or the speaker’s desire to make them prominent. In spoken language detached parts of the sentence are marked by intonation, pauses and special stress; in written language they are generally separated by commas or dashes. Adverbial modifiers, attributes and prepositional indirect objects may stand in loose connection to the word they modify, i.e. they may be detached (loose) parts of the sentence. The adverbial modifier is more apt to stand in loose connection than any other part of the sentence.
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THE DETACHED ADVERBIAL MODIFIER: Any part of speech used in the function of an adverbial modifier may be detached, which accounts for a comma that separates a construction from the rest of the sentence.
In her excitement, Maria jammed the bedroom-door together.
An adverbial modifier expressed by the Nominative Absolute Participial Construction or any other absolute construction is generally detached.
With his hands buried in his hands, he didn’t see her enter the room.
Of all the kinds of adverbial modifiers that of attendant circumstances is most apt to become detached.
He came in, with a large parcel under his arm.
THE DETACHED ATTRIBUTE: A detached attribute can modify not only a common noun as an ordinary attribute does, but also a proper noun and a pronoun.
Dumb with amazement, Mr. Gradgrind crossed to the spot where his family was.
THE DETACHED OBJECT: The prepositional indirect object is often detached.
She doesn’t change - except her hair.
