The nature of the subject in a definition of free adjuncts and absolutes

It clearly follows from the preceding survey of the possible types of subjects in absolutes that the nature of the S_A-referent, more exactly its non-identity with the referent of the matrix subject, cannot even be adduced as a necessary condition in a definition of absolutes. Just as was shown for free adjuncts that other (matrix) constituents than the S_M may control the underlying S_FA, it emerges for absolutes that the S_A may display different degrees of coreference with the matrix proposition or noun phrases inside and outside the matrix clause, including even the possibility of full coreference with the matrix subject. Hence, absolutes cannot be regarded as being semantically detached from their matrix clause in the sense that none of their constituents, and especially the S_A, is (to whatever degree) coreferential with some argument of the matrix verb. However, it must not be overlooked that there are striking differences between unaugmented and with-augmented absolutes concerning the degree of coreference that their subjects typically display (see sections 7.1 and 7.3). For augmented absolutes, there is a clear tendency (i) that their subjects are most frequently not coreferential at all with some noun phrase in the matrix clause or the cotext, and (ii) that their frequency is in inverse relation to an increasing degree of coreference, especially if it is signalled via personal pronouns or expressions like each, some, the former/latter. The subjects of unaugmented absolutes, on the other hand, are typically coreferential with some noun phrase in the surrounding linguistic material; moreover, in the majority of cases part–whole coreference is overt. These divergent tendencies in the two types of absolute constructions are captured by the almost diametrically opposed scales in Figure 8.1. ¹ Figure 8.1 The degree of coreference displayed by the subjects of augmented and unaugmented absolutes. https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781315002880/1d0451a3-8d0b-452f-b133-9585d5e31072/content/fig8_1_B.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>