dative absolute

English

Etymology

Calque of Latin dativus absolutus.

Noun

dative absolute (plural datives absolute or dative absolutes)

1. (grammar) an independent phrase in a sentence conveying additional circumstances in the dative case; present:
   1. in Germanic:
      1. in Old English
         1. it has been continued by Modern English but at some point became the nominative absolute
      2. in Old High German
      3. in Middle Dutch less frequently than the genitive absolute
      4. in Old Norse
      5. in Gothic
   2. in Old Church Slavonic
      1. in Old East Slavic and due to Old Church Slavonic influence in Russian as late as the 18th century
   3. in Lithuanian and Latvian

Further reading

• He, Qingshun, Yang, Bingjun (2015) Absolute Clauses in English from the Systemic Functional Perspective. A Corpus-Based Study, Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer, →ISBN
• Bauer, Brigitte (2000) Archaic Syntax in Indo-European, Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, →ISBN, pages 261–333