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Can you explain me why "being" is omitted in these absolute phrases with past participles?

  • His heart broken, he left the room quietly.
  • Her spirit awoken, Julie felt she could do anything.
  • His clothes soaked from the rain, shivers were running up and down his spine.

As far as I understand, the underlined words are adjectives, which require the word "being" (like in this sentence: The table being broken, we decided to fix it.

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  • Strictly speaking, they are ambiguous. "Broken","awoken" and "soaked" could be adjectives modifying the nouns "heart", "spirit" and "clothes", in which case the initial expressions are verbless clauses, the analogues of the absolute clauses "His heart being broken" / "Her spirit being awoken" / "His clothes being soaked".
    – BillJ
    Commented Dec 20, 2021 at 17:46
  • Can "being" be omitted in these three initial expressions? 1.The table (being) broken, we decided to fix it. 2. The room (being) unlocked, all the people stayed there. 3. The door (being) opened, the party stepped into a wide stone passage.
    – Olga
    Commented Dec 20, 2021 at 18:29
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    The first two are OK. The third one is possible but unnatural. Note that we can say "a broken table" and "an unlocked door", but in "an opened door", the adjective "open" is normally required instead.
    – BillJ
    Commented Dec 20, 2021 at 19:02
  • It's not that "His heart being broken" is ungrammatical. It is that it is awkward in that position. We might normally use: As his heart was broken, he left the room quietly.
    – Lambie
    Commented Jun 1, 2022 at 16:40
  • Note that these constructions are somewhat literary and (to me) emotionally heightened. If the table being broken doesn't carry special significance it would be better to use a more neutral construction ("Because/given that the table was broken", "With the table broken"...).
    – nschneid
    Commented Mar 10 at 5:12

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Their reputation as winners secured by victory, the New York Liberty charged into the semifinals. [emphasis added]

The season nearly finished, Rebecca Lobo and Sophie Witherspoon emerged as true leaders. [emphasis added]

The two superstars signed autographs into the night, their faces beaming happily.

(http://guidetogrammar.org/grammar/phrases.htm)

Usually, an absolute phrase consists of a noun/pronoun and a participle as well as any related modifiers. As shown above, participles in absolute phrases can be present participles or past participles.

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