The Absolute constructions
The Nominative Absolute Participial construction
The weather being cold the children stayed at home.
The sun having set they made a fire.
The weather permitting we'll go to the country tomorrow.
He left the room the dog following him.
The Nominative Absolute Participial is a construction in which the Participle is in predicate relation to a noun in the Common case or a pronoun in the Nominative case which is not the subject of the sentence.
This construction performs the function of an adverbial modifier of cause, time, condition or attendant circumstances.
The Prepositional Absolute Participial construction
It is formed of the previous construction by adding the preposition with at the beginning.
They walked in the park, with John smoking his pipe.
Они гуляли в парке, при этом Джон курил трубку.
With the number of refugees increasing, Great Britain will soon face a serious of over population.
Если количество беженцев будет увеличиваться, Великобритания скоро столкнется с проблемой перенаселения.
The Nominative Absolute construction
It is formed of the Nominative Absolute Participial construction by omitting the participle of the verb to be.
He set at the fire-place, his favorite German Shepherd at his feet.
Он сидел у камина, при этом у его ног лежала его любимая немецкая овчарка.
The prepositional Absolute construction
It is a combination of models 2 and 3.
With two thousand miners out, no ton coal was produced yesterday.
Поскольку вчера бастовало 2000 шахтеров не было добыто ни одной тонны угля.
The ways of translating absolute constructions into Russian
Absolute constructions can be translated by a Russian adverbial clause of time, cause, condition or attendant circumstances.
The weather being cold the children stayed at home.
Поскольку погода была холодная, дети остались дома.
In English grammar, a nominative absolute is a free-standing (absolute) part of a sentence that describes or modifies the main subject and verb. It is usually at the beginning or end of the sentence, although it can also appear in the middle. Its parallel is the ablative absolute in Latin, or the genitive absolute in Greek.
One way to identify a nominative absolute is to add a verb; one can always create a sentence out of a nominative absolute by adding one verb (generally a form of to be).
Their manes flowing, the horses ran from the burning barn.
Nominative absolute: Their manes flowing.
With a verb added: Their manes were flowing.
Stephen, his mind taxed, searched frantically for a dictionary.
Nominative absolute: his mind taxed
With a verb added: His mind was taxed.
Similarly, one can break the absolute off, add a verb and make two sentences. For example, Stephen searched frantically for a dictionary. His mind was taxed.
A prominent example of a nominative absolute is the first half of the sentence composing the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution:
A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.
By part of a compound sentence (сложно-сочиненное предложение) separated from the rest of sentence by ';'.
They walked in the park, with John smoking his pipe.
Они гуляли в парке; Джон курил трубку.
By Russian деепричастие
She comes into the room, the revolver in her hand.
Она вошла в комнату, держа в руке револьвер.
By a noun with a preposition.
He comes into the room, his revolver in his hand.
Он вошел в комнату с револьвером в руках.
Note: Sometimes we find a combination of the Nominative Absolute Participial and the structure there is.
Поскольку в аудитории не было доски, мы не могли в ней заниматься.
There being no blackboard in the classroom, we could not have a lesson there.
The participle of the verb to be is never omitted here.