"absolute phrase" is a correct and usable term in written English.
It is typically used to refer to a group of words that modifies or describes a noun in a sentence without changing the overall meaning of the sentence. For example: He glanced at the old clock, its pendulum ticking slowly.
Nelson Lund, a professor of law at George Mason University, argues that everything before the second comma is an "absolute phrase" and, therefore, does not modify anything in the main clause.
Use a comma to separate an absolute phrase.
An absolute phrase, also called a nominative absolute, modifies the entire sentence.
Here is an example of an absolute phrase beginning a sentence: "Her homework completed, Sujata left to meet her friends".
An absolute phrase usually has its own subject and is generally formed with a "noun" and a "participle" (an "-ing" or "-ed" word).
Here is an example of an absolute phrase concluding a sentence: "The couple hurried home, the cold nipping at their faces".
That phrase, "absolute evil," would become an important constituent of Wiesel's rhetoric over the years; the Bad News gestured toward a kind of metaphysical innocence.
It is patently obvious to most people that reasons put forward by Islington council as to why fabric had to shut with immediate effect were, for want of a more sensitive phrase, absolute bullshit.
Rather than focusing on absolute length read every phrase of your resume and ask yourself if the phrase increases, decreases or has no impact upon convincing the recruiter you are the perfect match for the position.
If I could introduce my own motion, it would be for no more "debating", and an absolute veto on the phrase "we need to have a conversation" in relation to rights.
Ever since the US invaded and occupied the country in 1915, every serious political attempt to allow Haiti's people to move (in former president Jean-Bertrand Aristide's phrase) "from absolute misery to a dignified poverty" has been violently and deliberately blocked by the US government and some of its allies.
