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Take as an example the sentence:

"The monk is skinny, his arms lean from years of cardiovascular exercise."

I've seen similar sentences and am curious about the grammar, since a similar sentence (with a comma splice) would be:

"The monk is skinny, his arms are lean from years of cardiovascular exercise."

Is this wrong (the first example - I know the comma splice is often frowned upon though controversial)? I've seen some serious authors do this so I assume it's not but I don't know how it works.

Jerald Jeraldson
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  • Does this answer your question? "Thirsty, we drank." It's an absolute construction. An archetypal example is 'The batsman, his bail being dislodged, walked.' Often, if the ing-form is being, it is omitted: 'The batsman, his bail dislodged, walked.' Your example has the (being-less) absolute in terminal position in the sentence. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 30 '21 at 15:32
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    In the second variation, it looks like two complete sentences ; hence a semicolon ( or even a period ) might be more appropriate. In the first variation, only the comma works. – Prem Jan 30 '21 at 15:50
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    I'm not sure why the duplicate is insufficient. 'The monk is skinny, his arms [being] lean from years of cardiovascular exercise' compares exactly to 'the batsman walked {back to the pavilion}, his bail [being] dislodged' or 'the men are starving, their rations [having been] eaten'. Like 'being', 'having been' is often omitted. – Edwin Ashworth Jan 30 '21 at 17:13
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    @EdwinAshworth: I checked out your link an hour ago, but I didn't follow through with my own closevote because I only looked at the first answer, which didn't really seem adequate. "Community" has taken care of things now anyway, but having just scrolled down to your answer on the link, I completely endorse it. – FumbleFingers Jan 30 '21 at 17:24
  • @FF Is 'Community' the fledgling E-Académie? – Edwin Ashworth Jan 30 '21 at 17:46

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