Ancient Greek grammar Ancient Greek grammar is morphologically complex and preserves several features of Proto-Indo-European language, Proto-Indo-European morphology. Nouns, adjectives, pronouns, articles, numerals and especially verbs are all highly inflected. A comp ...

, the genitive absolute is a

grammatical construction In linguistics, a grammatical construction is any syntax, syntactic string of words ranging from Sentence (linguistics), sentences over phrase structure rules, phrasal structures to certain complex lexemes, such as phrasal verbs. Grammatical const ...

consisting of a

participle In linguistics, a participle (; abbr. ) is a nonfinite verb form that has some of the characteristics and functions of both verbs and adjectives. More narrowly, ''participle'' has been defined as "a word derived from a verb and used as an adject ...

and often a

noun In grammar, a noun is a word that represents a concrete or abstract thing, like living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, and ideas. A noun may serve as an Object (grammar), object or Subject (grammar), subject within a p ...

both in the

genitive case In grammar, the genitive case ( abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive ca ...

, which is very similar to the ablative absolute in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

. A genitive

absolute construction In linguistics, an absolute construction is a grammatical construction standing apart from a normal or usual syntactical relation with other words or sentence elements. It can be a non-finite clause that is subordinate in form and modifies an enti ...

serves as a dependent

clause In language, a clause is a Constituent (linguistics), constituent or Phrase (grammar), phrase that comprises a semantic predicand (expressed or not) and a semantic Predicate (grammar), predicate. A typical clause consists of a subject (grammar), ...

, usually at the beginning of a sentence, in which the genitive noun is the subject of the dependent clause and the participle takes on the role of predicate. The term ''absolute'' comes from the Latin ''absolutus'', literally meaning "made loose". That comes from the general truth that the genitive absolute usually does not refer to anything in the independent clause; however, there are many exceptions, notably in the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

and in

Koine Koine Greek (, ), also variously known as Hellenistic Greek, common Attic, the Alexandrian dialect, Biblical Greek, Septuagint Greek or New Testament Greek, was the common supra-regional form of Greek spoken and written during the Hellenistic ...

Examples

Below are some examples of the genitive absolute, in different tenses. This first example shows how a genitive absolute with a present participle is used with simultaneous actions. In this example, the two events occur at the same time, or rather, the sailing occurs during the period when spring was beginning. This example shows a genitive absolute with an aorist participle. Here, the two events do not happen simultaneously, as they do with the present genitive absolute, but the event in the main clause occurs after the event in the participial clause. The perfect participle describes a situation which was already in existence and which still prevailed at the time of the action of the main verb, for example: The future is less often used in a genitive absolute. It is generally found after the particle () "in view of the fact that" or "on the grounds that", for example:

Absolute constructions in other languages

Absolute constructions occur with other

grammatical case A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers (determiners, adjectives, participles, and Numeral (linguistics), numerals) that corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a Nominal group (functional grammar), n ...

s in

Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the northern Indian subcontinent, most of Europe, and the Iranian plateau with additional native branches found in regions such as Sri Lanka, the Maldives, parts of Central Asia (e. ...

, such as the accusative absolute in Ancient Greek, German, and late Latin, ablative absolute in Latin, dative absolute in Gothic and

Old Church Slavonic Old Church Slavonic or Old Slavonic ( ) is the first Slavic languages, Slavic literary language and the oldest extant written Slavonic language attested in literary sources. It belongs to the South Slavic languages, South Slavic subgroup of the ...

, and locative absolute in

Vedic Sanskrit Vedic Sanskrit, also simply referred as the Vedic language, is the most ancient known precursor to Sanskrit, a language in the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family. It is atteste ...

. Compare also

nominative absolute In English grammar, a nominative absolute is an absolute, the term coming from Latin for "loosened from" or "separated", part of a sentence, functioning as a sentence modifier (usually at the beginning or end of the sentence). It provides an add ...

in English. An actual genitive absolute exists in

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

, such as ''klopfenden Herzens'' "(with) his/her heart beating", although its use is much less prominent compared to Greek (or to Latin's ablative or English's nominative in such constructions).

References

External links

Katanik
blog entry explaining the genitive absolute in Ancient Greek in few easy terms.
LOY Excursus: The Genitive Absolute in the Synoptic Gospels
(www.JerusalemPerspective.com) contains a complete list of the instances of the genitive absolute in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke as well as in the Septuagint's Pentateuch (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy). {{Ancient Greek grammar Greek language Genitive construction Greek grammar