when sanction serves as a verb

By the way, what are you referring to when you write: "To dialogue?"

In the third sentence, the command did not authorize Lu Bu's revolt. I suggest that you think of sanction as meaning authorize in every case in which you see it as a verb, and that if it means something which is not authorized, you will see negation in some form there. I cannot, right off the top of my head, think of a case in which the verb sanction means that something is not authorized without the presence of a negating word.

EU to discuss sanctions in Syria
Five hundred now dead in crackdown, monitors say, while talks begin to find an international response
Six Syrians who helped Bashar al-Assad How Syria and Libya compare Syrian ambassador's royal wedding invite withdrawn Tories face calls to return Syrian donation Libyan rebels 'hit by friendly fire'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/28/syria-eu-death-toll

For example:

In the context below, can you judge the meaning of "sanctions" at the first glance?

Quote:

EU to discuss sanctions in Syria

oristarA wrote:

For example:

In the context below, can you judge the meaning of "sanctions" at the first glance?

Quote:

EU to discuss sanctions in Syria

I can judge the meaning of sanctions at a glance because:

Mainly:
1. I know that "sanctions" is either the present tense of the verb "to sanction" or the plural of the noun "sanction".

2. I can see from the structure of the sentence "EU to discuss sanctions" that the noun use is being employed. The sentence makes no sense otherwise.

Subsidiary reasons:
3. I know that the Syrian government has been attacking protesters with tanks and machine guns.

4. I know that national governments and international bodies like the United Nations and the EU sometimes apply sanctions against countries for various reasons.

When used as a noun, sanction almost always means that a penalty is being imposed. I cannot off-hand think of an example of sanction being used as a noun when it means anything else.

But do the main reasons stand firm? Setanta has given a way of judging the meaning of sanction, in which he said when as a verb it usually means authorize; thus in your reason, it seems to me, when as a noun it would refer to "support."

All of your three examples show sanction being used as a verb meaning authorise, permit, allow.

Traditionally, in modern English, sanction has only one meaning as a verb - to permit, authorise, allow, etc. When used as a noun, it means penalty or punishment.

However, it is observed occasionally in use as a verb meaning to punish. Personally I would call this an error or at least avoid it because of the potential ambiguity. The 1986 Oxford English Dictionary says "A use of doubtful acceptability at present." However I expect you will hear from others (an other in particular) that it is OK to use it this way.

As to how you may know the exact meaning, the method you should employ is to carefully study the context in which it is used.

Laughoutloud seems to have noticed that it is an autoantonym. There are a number of these, including "cleave", meaning both "stuck to" and "separate". It often occurs when a word starts meaning something neutral but is later applied in two opposite contexts. "Sanction" has a rather interesting history. The original root conveyed neither approval nor disapproval, but "holiness". It's related to "sanctity". Words tend to drift in meaning over time, and from "holiness", the word took on the connotation of "legal force". That legal force can be applied either to require things or to disallow them. This sort of thing happens all the time in language. The word "host", for example, can mean either "somebody who welcomes you" or "an army". ("Host" as "army" is relatively rare, but "hostile" is related and quite common.) The original Latin word "hostis" meant neither, it simply meant "stranger". And you can see how "stranger" could take on both positive and negative connotations. Oddly, the same word "hostis" also gave rise to the English word "guest", exactly the opposite of "host". So basically, what has happened that we start with a neutral word, then move on to apply both negative and positive connotations to it in different contexts. Eventually, the word ends up taking on both connotations, effectively meaning the opposite.

All of your three examples show sanction being used as a verb meaning authorise, permit, allow.

Traditionally, in modern English, sanction has only one meaning as a verb - to permit, authorise, allow, etc. When used as a noun, it means penalty or punishment.
......