Does "sanction" mean "punish" here?

Scientific Misconduct
Government Sanctions Harvard Psychologist

Siri Carpenter*

In 2010, a Harvard University investigation concluded that psychologist Marc Hauser had engaged in scientific misconduct. Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Research Integrity confirmed the findings, revealing that Hauser fabricated and falsified methods and data in six federally funded studies. The news brought closure to those who questioned whether Hauser was guilty of any wrongdoing. But because neither investigation indicates which of Hauser's hundreds of publications were investigated, many researchers remain uncertain about how to regard the rest of his work.

: the detriment, loss of reward, or coercive intervention annexed to a violation of a law as a means of enforcing the law
4
a : a consideration, principle, or influence (as of conscience) that impels to moral action or determines moral judgment
b : a mechanism of social control for enforcing a society's standards
c : explicit or official approval, permission, or ratification : approbation

In a single work day, we might head a task force, eye an opportunity, nose around for good ideas, mouth a greeting, elbow an opponent, strong-arm a colleague, shoulder the blame, stomach a loss, and finally hand in our resignation. What we're doing with all those body parts is called verbing--using nouns (or occasionally other parts of speech) as verbs.

Confusingly for some people, 'sanction' as a verb can also mean "allow" or "permit". Originally a noun from the Latin noun sanctio, meaning "a law or decree that is sacred or inviolable.". A verb "sanction" was created in the 18th century meaning "to allow by law," but it wasn't until the second half of the 20th century that it began to also mean "to punish (for breaking a law)."

Contrex makes an excellent and accurate point.

Joe( good catch)Nation

Of course excellent. But the real question is: how to know the word sanction in a sentence to mean "to allow by law" or "to punish by law?"

Take the title "Government Sanctions Harvard Psychologist" as an example. When it comes to our view for the first time, it seems hard to judge whether it means "to permit" or "to punish" by the law until we've read the context (or already known Marc Haucer's story) and thus deem logically that it refers to the latter.

In English, (for the most part), nouns can be used as verbs.

But the real question is: how to know the word sanction in a sentence to mean "to allow by law" or "to punish by law?"

Take the title "Government Sanctions Harvard Psychologist" as an example. When it comes to our view for the first time, it seems hard to judge whether it means "to permit" or "to punish" by the law until we've read the context (or already known Marc Haucer's story) and thus deem logically that it refers to the latter.

We have lots of words that can have two separate and opposite meanings.

They are called Autoantonyms.

The word "fine" can mean satisfactory or okay.
"How are you." "I'm fine."
It can also mean excellent, as in the condition of a thing.
"The three large pieces were graded as 'good' but the little coins were rated 'fine to very fine.'"

One of my favorites is the word "dust".
You can dust a cabinet to remove the dust.
or
You can dust the top of a cake with sugar.
You can also dust a wheat field with chemicals.

If you tell someone to scan a document, they are likely to look at it very closely.
OR
They will skim over the contents of the page and hand it back.
OR
They will put it into their desktop scanner and make a file copy on their computer.

It's all about context.

Does Chinese have words which have two meanings or more, I'm not talking about different tones, I'm asking if there can be two meanings to a word or character?

"Gave out" can mean distributed

or it can mean "stop"
"Her heart just gave out."


Joe(we do this in order to keep Chinese people interested in our language. )Nation

Quote:

But the real question is: how to know the word sanction in a sentence to mean "to allow by law" or "to punish by law?"

Take the title "Government Sanctions Harvard Psychologist" as an example. When it comes to our view for the first time, it seems hard to judge whether it means "to permit" or "to punish" by the law until we've read the context (or already known Marc Haucer's story) and thus deem logically that it refers to the latter.

Assuming that Tsars found the same article you referenced, Ori,

Scientific Misconduct
Government Sanctions Harvard Psychologist

Scientific Misconduct would be pretty much all one needed to determine the intended meaning.

Another that you wouldn't necessarily know, and which I'm not completely sure of at this point, is that 'sanction' with the "good" meaning isn't used for a person. IIIIIIIIIII believe a person sanctioned only carries a negative meaning.

But it's late and my mind is tired. If I'm mistaken, I'm sure that there will be someone who will come along to correct me.

Quote:

But the real question is: how to know the word sanction in a sentence to mean "to allow by law" or "to punish by law?"

Take the title "Government Sanctions Harvard Psychologist" as an example. When it comes to our view for the first time, it seems hard to judge whether it means "to permit" or "to punish" by the law until we've read the context (or already known Marc Haucer's story) and thus deem logically that it refers to the latter.

Assuming that Tsars found the same article you referenced, Ori,

Scientific Misconduct
Government Sanctions Harvard Psychologist

Scientific Misconduct would be pretty much all one needed to determine the intended meaning.

Another that you wouldn't necessarily know, and which I'm not completely sure of at this point, is that 'sanction' with the "good" meaning isn't used for a person. IIIIIIIIIII believe a person sanctioned only carries a negative meaning.

But it's late and my mind is tired. If I'm mistaken, I'm sure that there will be someone who will come along to correct me.

But the real question is: how to know the word sanction in a sentence to mean "to allow by law" or "to punish by law?"

Another that you wouldn't necessarily know, and which I'm not completely sure of at this point, is that 'sanction' with the "good" meaning isn't used for a person. IIIIIIIIIII believe a person sanctioned only carries a negative meaning.