sentence

A sentence, whether short or long, must express a complete idea; and a complete sentence must consist of at least one independent clause—that is, a subject and predicate that make a complete thought. Independent clauses are so called because they make sense when they stand on their own. They are also sometimes referred to as “main clauses.”Continue reading...

sen·tence

S0269100 (sĕn′təns)n.1. A grammatical unit that is syntactically independent and has a subject that is expressed or, as in imperative sentences, understood and a predicate that contains at least one finite verb.2. The penalty imposed by a law court or other authority upon someone found guilty of a crime or other offense.3. Archaic A maxim.4. Obsolete An opinion, especially one given formally after deliberation.tr.v. sen·tenced, sen·tenc·ing, sen·tenc·es To impose a sentence on (a criminal defendant found guilty, for example).

[Middle English, opinion, from Old French, from Latin sententia (perhaps dissimilated from *sentientia), from sentiēns, sentient-, present participle of sentīre, to feel; see sent- in Indo-European roots.]

sen′tenc·er n.

sentence

(ˈsɛntəns) n1. (Linguistics) a sequence of words capable of standing alone to make an assertion, ask a question, or give a command, usually consisting of a subject and a predicate containing a finite verb2. (Law) the judgment formally pronounced upon a person convicted in criminal proceedings, esp the decision as to what punishment is to be imposed3. an opinion, judgment, or decision4. (Music, other) music another word for period¹¹5. (Ecclesiastical Terms) any short passage of scripture employed in liturgical use: the funeral sentences. 6. (Logic) logic a well-formed expression, without variables7. archaic a proverb, maxim, or aphorismvb (Law) (tr) to pronounce sentence on (a convicted person) in a court of law: the judge sentenced the murderer to life imprisonment. [C13: via Old French from Latin sententia a way of thinking, from sentīre to feel] sentential adj senˈtentially adv

sen•tence

(ˈsɛn tns)

n., v. -tenced, -tenc•ing. n. 1. a structurally independent grammatical unit of one or more words, in speech often preceded and followed by pauses and in writing begun with a capital letter and ended with a period or other end punctuation, typically consisting of a subject and a predicate containing a finite verb and expressing a statement, question, request, command, or exclamation, as Summer is here. or Who is it? or Stop! 2. a judicial decision or decree, esp. one decreeing the punishment to be inflicted on a convicted criminal. 3. Obs. an opinion given on a particular question. v.t. 4. to pronounce sentence upon; condemn to punishment. [1175–1225; < Old French < Latin sententia opinion, decision =sent- (base of sentīre to feel) + -entia -ence] sen′tenc•er, n.

Sentence

of judges—Bk. of St. Albans, 1486.

sentence

Past participle: sentenced
Gerund: sentencing

Imperative
sentence
sentence

Present
I sentence
you sentence
he/she/it sentences
we sentence
you sentence
they sentence

Preterite
I sentenced
you sentenced
he/she/it sentenced
we sentenced
you sentenced
they sentenced

Present Continuous
I am sentencing
you are sentencing
he/she/it is sentencing
we are sentencing
you are sentencing
they are sentencing

Present Perfect
I have sentenced
you have sentenced
he/she/it has sentenced
we have sentenced
you have sentenced
they have sentenced

Past Continuous
I was sentencing
you were sentencing
he/she/it was sentencing
we were sentencing
you were sentencing
they were sentencing

Past Perfect
I had sentenced
you had sentenced
he/she/it had sentenced
we had sentenced
you had sentenced
they had sentenced

Future
I will sentence
you will sentence
he/she/it will sentence
we will sentence
you will sentence
they will sentence

Future Perfect
I will have sentenced
you will have sentenced
he/she/it will have sentenced
we will have sentenced
you will have sentenced
they will have sentenced

Future Continuous
I will be sentencing
you will be sentencing
he/she/it will be sentencing
we will be sentencing
you will be sentencing
they will be sentencing

Present Perfect Continuous
I have been sentencing
you have been sentencing
he/she/it has been sentencing
we have been sentencing
you have been sentencing
they have been sentencing

Future Perfect Continuous
I will have been sentencing
you will have been sentencing
he/she/it will have been sentencing
we will have been sentencing
you will have been sentencing
they will have been sentencing

Past Perfect Continuous
I had been sentencing
you had been sentencing
he/she/it had been sentencing
we had been sentencing
you had been sentencing
they had been sentencing

Conditional
I would sentence
you would sentence
he/she/it would sentence
we would sentence
you would sentence
they would sentence

Past Conditional
I would have sentenced
you would have sentenced
he/she/it would have sentenced
we would have sentenced
you would have sentenced
they would have sentenced

sentence

A group of words forming an independent grammatical unit, usually made up of a subject and a predicate that contains a finite verb.

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	sentence - a string of words satisfying the grammatical rules of a language; "he always spoke in grammatical sentences"simple sentence - a sentence having no coordinate clauses or subordinate clausescomplex sentence - a sentence composed of at least one main clause and one subordinate clausecompound sentence - a sentence composed of at least two coordinate independent clausesgrammatical constituent, constituent - (grammar) a word or phrase or clause forming part of a larger grammatical constructionclause - (grammar) an expression including a subject and predicate but not constituting a complete sentencedeclarative sentence, declaratory sentence - a sentence (in the indicative mood) that makes a declarationrun-on sentence - an ungrammatical sentence in which two or more independent clauses are conjoined without a conjunctiontopic sentence - a sentence that states the topic of its paragraphlinguistic string, string of words, word string - a linear sequence of words as spoken or writteninterrogation, interrogative, interrogative sentence, question - a sentence of inquiry that asks for a reply; "he asked a direct question"; "he had trouble phrasing his interrogations"
	2.	sentence - (criminal law) a final judgment of guilty in a criminal case and the punishment that is imposed; "the conviction came as no surprise"judgment of conviction, conviction, condemnationfinal decision, final judgment - a judgment disposing of the case before the court; after the judgment (or an appeal from it) is rendered all that remains is to enforce the judgmentmurder conviction - conviction for murderrobbery conviction - conviction for robberycriminal law - the body of law dealing with crimes and their punishment
	3.	sentence - the period of time a prisoner is imprisoned; "he served a prison term of 15 months"; "his sentence was 5 to 10 years"; "he is doing time in the county jail"prison term, timeterm - a limited period of time; "a prison term"; "he left school before the end of term"hard time - a term served in a maximum security prisonlife sentence, life - a prison term lasting as long as the prisoner lives; "he got life for killing the guard"
Verb	1.	sentence - pronounce a sentence on (somebody) in a court of law; "He was condemned to ten years in prison"doom, condemnlaw, jurisprudence - the collection of rules imposed by authority; "civilization presupposes respect for the law"; "the great problem for jurisprudence to allow freedom while enforcing order"foredoom - doom beforehanddeclare - state emphatically and authoritatively; "He declared that he needed more money to carry out the task he was charged with"reprobate - abandon to eternal damnation; "God reprobated the unrepenting sinner"

sentence

noun1. punishment, prison sentence, jail sentence, prison term, condemnation He was given a four-year sentence.2. verdict, order, ruling, decision, judgment, decree, pronouncement When she heard of the sentence, she said: `Is that all?'verb1. condemn, doom A military court sentenced him to death in his absence.2. convict, condemn, penalize, pass judgment on, mete out justice to, impose a sentence on They sentenced him for punching a policewoman

sentence

nounA judicial decision, especially one setting the punishment to be inflicted on a convicted person:judgment.Slang: rap.verbTo pronounce judgment against:condemn, damn, doom.

Translations

句子宣判徒刑判判决

sentence

(ˈsentəns) noun1. a number of words forming a complete statement. `I want it', and `Give it to me!' are sentences.句子2. a punishment imposed by a lawcourt. a sentence of three years' imprisonment; He is under sentence of death.判决 verb (usually with to) to condemn to a particular punishment. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. 宣判，判决

sentence

→ 判刑zhCN, 句子zhCN, 徒刑zhCN

sentence

sentence,

in criminal law, punishment that a court orders, imposed on a person convicted of criminal activity. Sentences typically consist of fines, corporal punishmentcorporal punishment,
physical chastisement of an offender. At one extreme it includes the death penalty (see capital punishment), but the term usually refers to punishments like flogging, caning, mutilation, and branding. Until c.
..... Click the link for more information. , imprisonment for varying periods including life, or capital punishmentcapital punishment,
imposition of a penalty of death by the state. History

Capital punishment was widely applied in ancient times; it can be found (c.1750 B.C.) in the Code of Hammurabi.
..... Click the link for more information. , and sometimes combine two or more elements. In the United States, the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution bans "cruel and unusual punishments" (effectively excluding corporal punishment), and exile and forfeiture of property by heirs are not imposed. Especially in punishing misdemeanorsmisdemeanor,
in law, a minor crime, in contrast to a felony. At common law a misdemeanor was a crime other than treason or a felony. Although it might be a grave offense, it did not affect the feudal bond or take away the offender's property. By the 19th cent.
..... Click the link for more information. , payment of a fine may be the alternative to a prison sentence.

The sentence to be imposed is generally fixed by statute. In some cases (mandatory sentencing) the duration is exactly prescribed; in others the judge (and in some instances, the jury) has limited discretion. The U.S. Supreme Court has held that courts in sentencing may, and sometimes must, consider not only the crimes for which a defendant was convicted, but also other charges, even if they led to acquittal. The Court has also ruled that only a jury may make the factual findings that can increase a sentence beyond the usual range specified in law for a crime. If a person is convicted of more than one crime at a single trial, the sentences may run concurrently (i.e., all beginning at the same time) or consecutively. In indeterminate sentencing, a minimum and maximum term is set, and good behavior may allow a convict to be released on paroleparole
, in criminal law, release from prison of a convict before the expiration of his term on condition that his activities be restricted and that he report regularly to an officer.
..... Click the link for more information. any time after the minimum term has been served. In many states successive convictions on felonyfelony
, any grave crime, in contrast to a misdemeanor, that is so declared in statute or was so considered in common law. In early English law a felony was a heinous act that canceled the perpetrator's feudal rights and forfeited his lands and goods to the king, thus depriving
..... Click the link for more information. charges bring longer sentences, and in the 1980s some U.S. states and the federal government began to impose "three strikes" and similar laws, ordering mandatory long-term or life imprisonment for repeated felony offenses. Such laws have been criticized for sometimes requiring long sentences for nonviolent offenders whose crimes may include petty theft or drug possession. Persons found incapable of understanding the nature of their crimes or of helping in their defense are often committed to mental institutions for periods that are to end if they recover sanity; these are effectively, if not technically, sentences. See also verdictverdict,
in law, official decision of a jury respecting questions of fact that the judge has laid before it. In the United States, verdicts must be unanimous in federal courts, but majority verdicts are constitutionally permissible in state courts.
..... Click the link for more information. , juryjury,
body convened to make decisions of fact in legal proceedings. Development of the Modern Jury

Historians do not agree on the origin of the English jury.
..... Click the link for more information. , and pardonpardon,
in law, exemption from punishment for a criminal conviction granted by the grace of the executive of a government. A general pardon to a class of persons guilty of the same offense (e.g., insurrection) is an amnesty.
..... Click the link for more information. .

Sentence

one of the principal categories of syntax, contrasted to the word and word group in form, meaning, and function. In a broad sense the sentence is any utterance in a written text from period to period, from an expanded syntactic construction to an individual word or word form, that communicates information about something and is intended for auditory (when uttered) or visual (when written) perception. In a narrow, strictly grammatical sense, the sentence is a special syntactic construction based on a specific abstract model, organized according to the laws of a given language and specifically intended for communication. Depending on the purpose of the communication, sentences may be narrative, interrogative, or hortative; more specific classifications are also possible.

Sentences may be simple or compound. The simple sentence, as an elementary syntactic construction, consists of two, occasionally more, word forms (constituent components) linked by a specific predicative syntactic relation existing only in the sentence; a sentence can also consist of a single word form. Examples are Uchenik pishet (“The student is writing”); Vody pribyvaet (“The water is rising”); Prostit’ znachit zabyt’ (“To forgive means to forget”); Noch’ (“It is night”); Svetaet (“Day is breaking”).

Sentences may be expanded according to word-modifying bonds of agreement, government, and parataxis. Expansion may take place by means of word forms that expand the sentence as a whole: Dlia nee prostit’ znachit zabyt’ (“For her, to forgive means to forget”); Na Kamchatke seichas uzhe noch’ (“It is already night time now in Kamchatka”). It may also take place by means of participial and adverbal participial constructions or special expanding forms of words or conjunctive word combinations.

The elementary abstract model according to which an unexpended sentence is constructed may be represented symbolically. The formula N₁—Vf represents the construction of an unex-panded sentence of the type Uchenik pishet: N₁ = Latin nomen (“name,” or noun); 1 = nominative case; Vf = Latin verbum finitum (“finite verb,” or the conjugated form of the verb). Such an abstracted construction is known as the abstract model of a sentence, or its pattern, formula, or structural schema. These schemata may be mononuclear, binomial, free or restricted with respect to lexicological and semantic structure, and with or without paradigmatic features.

Each language has its own system of structural schemata. Individual schemata may coincide in different languages, but the systems as a whole are always distinguished from one another. The Indo-European languages possess binomial structural schemata. These contain a predicate, or a verb in the personal form; they may also contain a form of another word in the same position. The schemata also contain a subject, or a form of the nominative case of the noun; they may also contain an infinitive in the same position. As a component of the schema, the predicate always denotes a marker that is realized in time—action, state, property, or quality. The subject denotes the agent of this marker. When a sentence is expanded, the meaning of the subject may be shifted and focused in the expanding word form. Many other models are also found in the Indo-European languages, including mononuclear models, which consist either of a single component or of two components not divided into subject and predicate.

Structural schemata form the basis of concrete sentences constructed according to the model of these schemata. For example, the sentences Uchenik pishet, Nastupila noch ‘ (“Night fell”), and Teplitsia nadezhda (“There is still a glimmer of hope”) are constructed according to the schema N₁ —Vf. The sentences Syn—rabochii (“The son [is] a worker”), Moskva—stolitsa (“Moscow [is] the capital “), and El’—derevo (“The spruce [is] a tree”) are constructed according to the schema N₁—N₁. The structural schema is without intonation, but each sentence constructed according to one or another schema, as well as all the sentence’s forms and syntactic changes, must have a specific intonation.

The sentence combines several meanings of varying degrees of abstraction in a single grammatical form. In the first place, the sentence’s structural schema itself has an abstract meaning, called predicativity, common to all structural schemata. The predicativity meaning inherent in the schema is transferred to a concrete sentence and modified in the sentence’s paradigm, that is, in the different forms of the sentence that express the meanings of reality and unreality. However, in concrete sentences, added to the meaning of predicativity there is a new meaning of a different nature that originates from position, that is, from the components of the schema and from their relations, as well as from the lexical semantics of the words occupying these positions. Examples are Uchenik pishet: the subject and its action; Grom gremit (“It is thundering”; literally, “The thunder is thundering”): the subject and its presence, or existence; Svetaet: the presence of a subjectless state. Such meanings are relevant to the semantic structure of the sentence.

Sentences with different grammatical organization but identical semantic structure are regarded in some studies as transformations of one into another. Examples are Nastupaet vecher (literally, “It-is-falling evening”) and Vechereet (literally, “Night is falling”), both meaning “Evening is falling”; Gremit grom (“It-is-thundering’) and Grom (“There is thunder”); Syn uchitsia (“The son is studying”) and Syn—uchashchiisia (“The son [is] a student”; literally, “one who studies”). A third type of sentence meaning—the distribution of the functional load of its members —is expressed by the actual division of a sentence.

A compound sentence is composed of two or more simple sentences joined by conjunctions or by conjunctive words or particles. These are combined with a certain intonation and are often also supported by vocabulary to create a new syntactic formation, parts of which enter into certain syntactic relations with one another. In addition, one of the parts may undergo substantial structural changes or in general may have a formal organization not characteristic of the simple sentence. Depending on the means used to connect the parts of a compound sentence, such sentences are divided into complex sentences, with mutually independent parts, and compound sentences, with a main and subordinate part. However, in both cases the internal relations of the parts often do not correspond to the formal organization of the compound sentence, and the semantic types of complex and compound sentences intersect.

In both Russian and Western European linguistics, the sentence and its components were long studied as categories concurrent with logical judgment and its parts (the German scholar K. Becker and the Russian scholars N. I. Grech and F. I. Bus-laev) or with the psychological act of communication (the Russian scholars F. F. Fortunatov and A. A. Shakhmatov). In the study of the sentence as a purely linguistic syntactic category with its own formal and semantic characteristics, several trends have developed. The first treats the sentence as a complex structure that has more than one level and that simultaneously represents several degrees of linguistic abstraction (the Czech scholars V. Mathesius, M. Dokulil, and F. Daneš). A second trend deals with generative grammar and transformational syntax (the American scholars N. Chomsky, Z. Harris, and D. Worth and the East German scholar R. Růžička).

A third trend treats the sentence as a syntagmatic chain of bonds and relationships, an arrangement of words (the German scholar J. Ries, the American scholar L. Bloomfield, the Dutch scholar A. de Groot, the French scholar L. Tesnière and the Soviet scholar A. M. Mukhin). A fourth trend analyzes the sentence primarily as a unit of meaning (the Danish scholar O. Jespersen and the Soviet scholar L. V. Shcherba). In the 1960’s and 1970’s the sentence was studied as part of the theory of deep and surface structures and of propositional naming by the English scholar A. Gardiner, the German scholar U. Weinreich, and the Soviet scholars V. G. Gak and N. D. Arutiunova. The paradigmatic bonds and relationships that organize sentences into specific systems are currently under study by the American scholar D. Worth, the Czech scholars P. Adamec and V. Grabe, and the Soviet scholars N. Iu. Shvedova and T. P. Lomtev.

REFERENCES

Vinogradov, V. V. “Osnovnye voprosy sintaksisa predlozheniia.” In the collection Voprosy grammaticheskogo stroia. Moscow, 1955.
Peshkovskii, A. M. “Intonatsiia i grammatika.” In his book Izbrannye trudy. Moscow, 1959.
Kurilovich, E. “Osnovnye struktury iazyka: slovosochetanie i predlozhenie.” In his is book Ocherki po lingvistike. Moscow, 1962.
Mel’nichuk, A. S. “Aspekty obshchei teorii predlozheniia kak edinitsy rechi.” In Problemy iazykoznaniia. Moscow, 1967.
Mukhin, A. M. Struktura predlozhenii i ikh modeli. Moscow, 1968.
Grammatika sovremennogo russkogo literaturnogo iazyka. Moscow, 1970.
Obshchee iazykoznanie, part 2: Vnutrenniaia struktura iazyka. Moscow, 1972.
Shvedova, N. Iu. “O sootnoshenii grammaticheskoi i semanticheskoi struktury predlozheniia.” In Slavianskoe iazykoznanie. Moscow, 1973.
Ries, J. “Was ist ein Satz?” In the collection Beiträge zur Grundlegung der Syntax, no. 3. Prague, 1931.
Daneš, F. “A Three-level Approach to Syntax.” Travaux linguistiques de Prague, 1966, vol. 1.

N. IU. SHVEDOVA

Sentence

in music, a component of a period that ends with a cadence. The sentence, which takes on independent meaning in the opening main part of the sonata form, sometimes functions as a period.

sentence

[′sent·əns] (computer science) An entire instruction in the COBOL programming language.

sentence

1. the judgment formally pronounced upon a person convicted in criminal proceedings, esp the decision as to what punishment is to be imposed 2. Music another word for period3. any short passage of scripture employed in liturgical use 4. Logic a well-formed expression, without variables

sentence

(logic)A collection of clauses.

See also definite sentence.

sentence

sentence

sen·tence

sentence

sen•tence

Sentence

sentence

sentence

sentence

sentence

sentence

sentence

sentence

pass sentence (on someone or something)

sentence (one) to (something)

pass sentence on someone

sentence someone to something (for something)

sentence

sentence

sentence,

Sentence

REFERENCES

Sentence

sentence

sentence

sentence

Sentence

sentence

sentence

Synonyms for sentence

noun punishment

Synonyms

noun verdict

Synonyms

verb condemn

Synonyms

verb convict

Synonyms

Synonyms for sentence

noun a judicial decision, especially one setting the punishment to be inflicted on a convicted person

Synonyms

verb to pronounce judgment against

Synonyms

Synonyms for sentence

noun a string of words satisfying the grammatical rules of a language

Related Words

noun (criminal law) a final judgment of guilty in a criminal case and the punishment that is imposed

Synonyms

Related Words

noun the period of time a prisoner is imprisoned

Synonyms

Related Words

verb pronounce a sentence on (somebody) in a court of law

Synonyms

Related Words