The Prepositional Absolute Participial Construction

A Prepositional Absolute Participial Construction differs from a Non-prepositional Participial Construction in that it is introduced by the prepositions“with” and“without”. 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, e.g.: Andrew went into the housewith his heart beating fast. She went on readingwith her eyes fixed on the pages of the book. Without a word more spoken,they went away.

It is used as:

1. a complex attribute,e.g.: The girl slept on a couch in a tiny room,with only a thin worn curtain separating it from the bedroom. The walk to the village square was a pleasant one,with side streets shaded by towering trees,but Jaime was unaware of his surroundings.

2. a complex adverbial modifier of attending circumstances, e.g.: The officer satwith his long fine hands lying on the table perfectly still. The daughter sat quite silent and still,with her eyes fixed on the ground.

The meaning of attending circumstancesmay be combined:

a)withmanner, e.g.: It is unhealthy to sleepwith the windows shut.

b) withtemporalmeaning, e.g.: I won’t speakwith him staring at me like that.

c)withcausal meaning, e.g.: I can’t walkwith my leg broken.

This construction is rendered into Ukrainian by a coordinate clause or дієприслівниковий зворот.

d) withconditionalmeaning, e.g.: They could not go ahead,without their plans being approved of by themanagement.

The Prepositional Absolute Construction

- I found him ready, and waiting for me, with his stick in his hand.

It is mostly used in the functions of:

1. a complex attribute, e.g.: It was a radiant day,with the trees and grass exceedingly green after the rain of the night before. A balcony holding thirty-five boxeswith a chandelier over each onecurved around the entire room.

2. a complex adverbial modifier of attending circumstances, e.g.: It was with an enormous feeling of relief that Lucia watched Rubio returnwith a wrapped cross under his arm. Sikes,with Oliver’s hand still in his, softly approached the low porch, and raised the latch.

In rendering this construction into Ukrainian a coordinate clause or дієприслівниковий зворотis used.

Exercises:

1. Define the forms of the Participles. Translate the sentences into Ukrainian:

1) When writing letters he doesn’t like to be disturbed. 2) Being written in pencil, the letter was difficult to make out. 3) Having written some letters he went to post them. 4) Having been written long ago the manuscript was illegible. 5) Having corrected the exercises, the teacher explained the most typical mistakes. 6) Having been corrected by the teacher, the exercises were returned to the students. 7) Having been well prepared for the examination, the student could answer all the questions asked by the examiners. 8) Having arranged everything, he went home by the 10.30 train. 9) Being told of arrival, I went to see him. 10) I had my hair cut yesterday.