The subject in absolutes

Other than in free adjuncts, the subject of absolutes (henceforth S_A) is overt and does not have to be recovered from the linguistic material given or the situational context. Moreover, the S_A is different from the matrix subject S_M. As pointed out at the very beginning of this part, this difference is generally assumed to be a purely syntactic one; yet, according to some definitions (e.g. Visser 1972: 1259), it is to be understood as non-coreferentiality. It is the aim of the following discussion to test these two views as well as the corresponding claims which make either the formal or the logical non-identity of S_A and S_M a necessary and sufficient condition for the definition of an absolute.