Last week's column described the nominative absolute or absolute clause—to avoid confusion we will call it the absolute phrase—asa major departure from the usual modifying phrases in that it doesn't directly modify a specific word in the main clause. Instead, it modifies the entire main clause, adding information or providing context to it.

An absolute phrase typically consists of a noun or pronoun followed by a participle and a related modifier, as in 'The orchards having been destroyed by the wildfire, the honeybees simply died.' In the modifying phrase here, 'orchards' is the noun and 'having been destroyed' the participle, with 'by the wildfire' as modifier. Unlike the typical modifying phrase, however, this absolute phrase modifies neither the noun 'honeybees' nor the verb 'died' in the main clause. Instead, it modifies the whole main clause, 'the honeybees simply died,' to give context to that idea.