absolute (adj.)

(1) A term used in TRADITIONAL GRAMMATICAL DESCRIPTION, and occasionally in LINGUISTICS, to refer to a SENTENCE CONSTITUENT which is isolated from or abnormally connected to the rest of the sentence. English displays an absolute use of ADVERBS and ADJECTIVES in sentence-INITIAL position, e.g. However, he arrived later; Happy, she went to sleep. In Latin, there are such EXOCENTRIC constructions as the ‘ABLATIVE absolute’, as in hoc facto (= ‘this having been done’).

(2) In linguistic theory, the term refers to a type of UNIVERSAL. An absolute universal is one which characterizes all languages, without exception; it contrasts with RELATIVE universal.