4

In a contract document I'm reading, I found the following sentence:

Notwithstanding the foregoing, your employment is also subject to the following terms:

My question concerns the phrase, "notwithstanding the foregoing." I understanding the meaning, but if you were going to construct a sentence diagram, what part of speech would this phrase have?

My initial reaction was to call it a nominative absolute, but it doesn't seem to fit the usual test (ie, try to subordinate by adding a conjunction + verb of being).

Improve this question
13
  • 1
    It's a pragmatic parenthetical (ie it stands syntactically separate from the matrix sentence). It is replaceable by the pragmatic marker subclass mitigation (and traditionally called a comment clause, and a sentence adverb / adverbial) nonetheless.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Jan 18, 2016 at 15:17
  • @EdwinAshworth In trad grammar, notwithstanding is a preposition. In modern grammar it is too! In one sense it's very different from nonetheless, because nonetheless cannot take a Complement. This is kind of important even from a trad grammar point of view.
    – Araucaria - Him
    Jan 19, 2016 at 23:00
  • @Araucaria The question refers to the phrase 'notwithstanding the foregoing', as does my comment-answer.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Jan 20, 2016 at 0:19
  • @EdwinAshworth Indeed. Like many other preposition phrases, it's an Adjunct. In trad grammar, it's an "adverbial". And notwithstanding is a preposition.
    – Araucaria - Him
    Jan 20, 2016 at 0:22
  • But OP asks about the parenthetical. I consider it to be so similar to 'nevertheless' here that it's of little use further analysing it, considering it best considered a multi-word lexeme. I've posted quite a few times about the unhelpfulness of the term 'sentence adverbial'.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Jan 20, 2016 at 0:28

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
2

Notwithstanding is a preposition that means in spite of and the noun foregoing is an object of the preposition. Therefore, "Notwithstanding the foregoing" in the sentence is just a prepositional phrase that modifies the sentence.

I think the confusion came from the fact that the preposition notwithstanding is in the form of a present participle (-ing) and the comma placed after the noun foregoing.

The comma is necessary to separate a rather long prepositional phrase from the sentence that follows it.

As you mentioned, there is no verb in the phrase and adding a conjunction doesn't work. Therefore, it is not a nominative absolute or participial construction.

Improve this answer
0

Your first inclination is correct: it is a nominative absolute. The acid test of adding "because of" before it shows this.

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    'Because of notwithstanding the foregoing' satisfies a test?
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Jan 20, 2016 at 0:22

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.