os.readlink returning value

[Giampaolo Rodola']

I was reading os.readlink doc which says:

readlink( path)

Return a string representing the path to which the symbolic link
points. The result may be either an absolute or relative pathname; if
it is relative, it may be converted to an absolute pathname using
os.path.join(os.path.dirname(path), result). Availability: Macintosh,
Unix.



...It's not clear to me when the returning result could be absolute
and when it could be relative.
Could someone clarify this point?