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Sindhu, in fact, became a shuttlecock, so to speak, between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh chief ministers K.C. Rao and N. Chandrababu Naidu, respectively. Both tried to appropriate her success by bestowing lavish felicitations and money. Naidu even went to the extent of playing a few points of badminton with Sindhu on the dais at a celebration function in Vijayawada, his footwork ginger and smile smug.

Source.

I couldn't understand the meaning of the phrase in the bold text. I know the meaning of the words but the way the sentence was framed confused me. I understand what ginger means here, but the missing linking verbs make it difficult to understand the phrase.

Could you explain it?

ColleenV
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Omkar Reddy
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  • We can write better answers if we understand what you already know. Have you looked up footwork, ginger, smile, and smug? What was confusing about the definitions when you tried to apply them to this phrase? – ColleenV Oct 16 '16 at 19:48
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    It might help to interpret this phrase if you realize that it's a reduced version of "his footwork was ginger and his smile was smug." – stangdon Oct 16 '16 at 21:04
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    hmmm...actually, I think the reduction is of being, but more interestingly this almost reads as an instance of zero copula. – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica Oct 17 '16 at 01:55
  • @ColleenV I know the meaning of the words but the way the sentence was framed confused me. – Omkar Reddy Oct 17 '16 at 03:22
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    Similar: http://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/67405/in-approval-was-given-and-jus-art-displayed-how-can-the-transitive-verb-di (but I read this one as being is omitted; anyway, that part is not a finite clause.) – Damkerng T. Oct 17 '16 at 11:33
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    @ColleenV It's actually tricky to look up ginger here, as most dictionaries won't list the relevant meaning. Instead, the OP needs to understand that ginger is a back-formation from gingerly, and look up gingerly instead. And I think this example is grammatically difficult because of the ellipsis of being, and I think that's hard for the OP to look up, too. I would like to see more details in questions in general, but in this case it might be difficult for the OP to find anything useful to add. –  Oct 17 '16 at 14:54
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    @snailplane Yes I agree ginger is the likely problem here. I was hoping to get Ganesh to confirm that instead of just assuming I knew. – ColleenV Oct 17 '16 at 15:57
  • @ColleenV At first I searched for ginger in Oxford dictionary. It says a quality of spiritedness or energy as one of its meanings. So, I thought it is appropriate here. Even then i didn't get the meaning since the sentence's construction confused me without the linking verbs. But I came to know the actual meaning of the word in this context after seeing snailplane's comment. – Omkar Reddy Oct 17 '16 at 16:03
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    @Ganesh.R If you can include that kind of detail in your questions in the future, it will help people write answers that address your problem directly, and you'll be more likely to get helpful answers :-) –  Oct 17 '16 at 16:06
  • @snailplane Actually I didn't know that it's a back-formation of gingerly. I thought I was clear with the meaning that I know. I asked to know the actual sentence formation and meaning since, for me, it seems to be irregular the way it is framed. And next time I'll act on your advice. – Omkar Reddy Oct 17 '16 at 16:14
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    OP said "the way the sentence was framed confused me". I'd say that's a pretty clear way to ask about the grammatical relationship between the phrase in question and the rest of its sentence. – Gary Botnovcan Oct 17 '16 at 16:16
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    @GaryBotnovcan I agree. It seems clear enough to me. But that wasn't in the original question. That was one of the OP's comments, which I edited into the question after they posted it :-) –  Oct 17 '16 at 16:17
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    My apologies, @Snailplane. I hadn't noticed that you edited the question. – Gary Botnovcan Oct 17 '16 at 16:19
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    Thanks for taking the time to explain Ganesh. I added a little bit more from your comments to the question. You can [edit] it if I didn't capture your meaning correctly. My purpose isn't to criticize you. I just want to help you get the right kind of answers for your question. I was worried that you might only get answers about the meaning of ginger, because "his footwork ginger" a little bit unusual, and not get answers about the structure of the phrase. – ColleenV Oct 17 '16 at 17:21
  • Was the footwork of Ginger Rogers ginger? – TimR Oct 17 '16 at 17:21
  • @ColleenV That's okay. I should have added this information while posting the question. Thank you. – Omkar Reddy Oct 17 '16 at 17:25

1 Answers1

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You're looking at an absolute phrase. 

Most descriptions of the absolute phrase construction examine nouns modified by participles.  These are nouns modified by postpositive adjectives. 

A sentiment similar to that expressed in your model sentence could be expressed with a prepositional phrase: 

Naidu, with ginger footwork and a smug smile, even went to the extent of playing a few points of badminton with Sindhu on the dais at a celebration function in Vijayawada.

The prepositional phrase above directly modifies "Naidu".  The absolute phrase in the original modifies the entire preceding clause.  The prepositional phrase suggests that he had the ginger footwork and smug smile before he began the game.  The absolute construction only suggests that he had them during the game. 

 

You may find this blog entry to be a useful guide to how the absolute phrase functions. 

Gary Botnovcan
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