“Something like that," Oshima said, and stopped, his lips taut.
It’s sentence from ‘Kafka on the shore’ novel.
I think ‘lips’ is subject and ‘taut’ is verb in simple past tense. But I cannot find infinitive of that word. Help me, please!
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2Did you look up "taut" in a dictionary? – Hot Licks Apr 26 '20 at 13:49
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1(The past tense of "teach" is "taught".) – Hot Licks Apr 26 '20 at 13:50
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@HotLicks, yes. Cambridge Dictionary says it’s adjective. But in this case I expected ‘lips were taut’. – Ilya Zinoviev Apr 26 '20 at 13:51
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It's an adjective used in an absolute construction (not to be confused with an 'absolute adjective' meaning 'an adjective with a meaning that is generally not capable of being intensified or compared' [Absolute Adjectives: Definition and Examples - ThoughtCowww.thoughtco.com] or 'an adjective usage not the comparative or superlative usage' {Internetgrammar}). – Edwin Ashworth Apr 26 '20 at 14:03
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You can think of it as having elided words (and possibly reversed word order), either "his lips [were] taut" or "[with] taut lips". Such constructions are explained several ways, but the basic point is that they are fairly common in English. – Hot Licks Apr 26 '20 at 14:08
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@HotLicks, thanks for explaining!! I see you. Your answer helped me. – Ilya Zinoviev Apr 26 '20 at 14:12
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Does this answer your question? "Thirsty, we drank." – Edwin Ashworth Apr 26 '20 at 14:53
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@EdwinAshworth, thank you for answer, I understood that ‘lips taut’ is absolute construction. – Ilya Zinoviev Apr 26 '20 at 14:57
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Do read the other examples at the duplicate thread. – Edwin Ashworth Apr 26 '20 at 15:10
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@EdwinAshworth, much obliged!!! – Ilya Zinoviev Apr 26 '20 at 15:39