ABSTRACT
As a prerequisite for understanding the basic assumptions underlying the individual analyses and part of the terminology in the following chapters, some general remarks are necessary on the process of interpreting free adjuncts and absolutes as well as on the nature of their semantic indeterminacy. In a first step (section 9.1), it will be asked how much proposals for a semantic representation of these construction types can contribute to a better understanding of these two issues. Against the background of this question, I will then put forward hypotheses, to a large extent developed on the basis of my empirical studies, concerning the necessity for relativizing the semantic indeterminacy of free adjuncts/absolutes (sections 9.2.1 and 9.2.3), and the cognitive relevance of a scale of informativeness (or specificness) on which the various semantic relations between clauses may be arranged (section 9.2.2).
