1. Grammar: Traditional Rules, Word Order, Agreement, and Case[分享]

§ 1. absolute constructions
Absolute constructions consist of a noun and some kind of modifier, the most common being a participle. Because they often come at the beginning of a sentence, they are easily confused with dangling participles. But an absolute construction modifies the rest of the sentence, not the subject of the sentence (as a participial phrase does). You can use absolute constructions to compress two sentences into one and to vary sentence structure as a means of holding a reader』s interest. Here are some examples:
  No other business arising, the meeting was adjourned.
  The paint now dry, we brought the furniture out on the deck.
  The truck finally loaded, they said goodbye to their neighbors and drove off.
  The horse loped across the yard, her foal trailing behind her.
     1
  Constructions like these are used more often in writing than in speaking, where it is more common to use a full clause: When the paint was dry, we brought the furniture out on the deck. There are, however, many fixed absolute constructions that occur frequently in speech:
  The picnic is scheduled for Saturday, weather permitting.
  Barring bad weather, we plan to go to the beach tomorrow.
  All things considered, it』s not a bad idea.
     2

Absolute terms are words that supposedly cannot be compared, as by more and most, or used with an intensive modifier, such as very or so. The terms identified in many handbooks as absolute include absolute itself and others such as chief, complete, perfect, prime, and unique. Language commentators also like to list terms from mathematics as absolutes: circular, equal, parallel, perpendicular, and so on.     1
  Of course, many adjectives in English cannot normally be compared or intensified. Adjectives from technical fields or with very narrow meanings often fall in this group. Think of biological, catabolic, macroeconomic, millennial, on-line, retroactive, ultraviolet. You just do not encounter statements like These cells are more somatic or Our database is so on-line. But you do come across remarks such as He wanted to make his record collection more complete and You can improve the sketch by making the lines more perpendicular.     2
  People object to these constructions because they seem to violate the categories of logic. Something is either complete or it isn』t. Lines are either perpendicular or they aren』t. There can be no in-between. The mistake here is to confuse pure logic or a mathematical ideal with the working approximations that distinguish the ordinary use of language. Certainly, we all have occasion to use words according to strict logic. It would be impossible to teach mathematics if we did not. But we also think in terms of a scale or spectrum, rather than in distinct, either/or categories. Thus, we may think of a statement as either true or false according to rigorous tests of logic, but we all know that there are degrees of truthfulness and falsehood. Similarly, there may be degrees of completeness to a record collection, and some lines may be more perpendicular―that is, they may more nearly approximate mathematical perpendicularity―than other lines: Is that picture frame more horizontal now, or have I made it even less? She has some of the most unique credentials I have ever seen on a resume. Such examples are not less logical than their stricter counterparts. They simply represent a different way of using language to discuss a subject.     3
  Certain absolute terms, such as parallel, perfect, and unique, have become enshrined in the lore of writing handbooks and may provoke a negative response when modified by degree. These words are treated in more detail at their entries under Word Choice.     4