The paper was presented at the scientific conference of the Union of Scientists in Bulgaria “Modern Challenges Facing Science”, which took place on 30-31 May 2012 at St. Kliment Ohridski University of Sofia, in the city of Sofia, Bulgaria

The English absolute construction is a very interesting, though quite controversial linguistic phenomenon. This is to a great extent due to its nature, on the one hand, and the diversity of its types and ways of interpretation, on the other. The present paper discusses the place of the absolute construction among other similar constructions, such as, for example, some types of non-finite and verbless clauses, pointing out its key characteristic features which distinguish it from them.