Crossword clues for antecedent
antecedent
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Antecedent \An`te*ced"ent\, n. [Cf. F. ant['e]c['e]dent.]
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That which goes before in time; that which precedes.
--South.The Homeric mythology, as well as the Homeric language, has surely its antecedents.
--Max Miller. -
One who precedes or goes in front. [Obs.]
My antecedent, or my gentleman usher.
--Massinger. -
pl. The earlier events of one's life; previous principles, conduct, course, history.
--J. H. Newman.If the troops . . . prove worthy of their antecedents, the victory is surely ours.
--Gen. G. McClellan. (Gram.) The noun to which a relative refers; as, in the sentence ``Solomon was the prince who built the temple,'' prince is the antecedent of who.
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(Logic)
The first or conditional part of a hypothetical proposition; as, If the earth is fixed, the sun must move.
The first of the two propositions which constitute an enthymeme or contracted syllogism; as, Every man is mortal; therefore the king must die.
(Math.) The first of the two terms of a ratio; the first or third of the four terms of a proportion. In the ratio a:b, a is the antecedent, and b the consequent.
Antecedent \An`te*ced"ent\, a. [L. antecedens, -entis, p. pr. of antecedere: cf. F. ant['e]c['e]dent.]
Going before in time; prior; anterior; preceding; as, an event antecedent to the Deluge; an antecedent cause.
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Presumptive; as, an antecedent improbability.
Syn: Prior; previous; foregoing.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
a. 1 earlier, either in time or order. 2 presumptive n. 1 Any thing that precedes another thing, especially the cause of the second thing. 2 An ancestor. 3 (context grammar English) A word, phrase or clause referred to by a pronoun. 4 (context logic English) The conditional part of a hypothetical proposition. 5 (context math English) The first term of a ratio, i.e. the term ''a'' in the ratio ''a:b'', the other being the consequent.
WordNet
adj. preceding in time or order [syn: preceding] [ant: subsequent]
n. someone from whom you are descended (but usually more remote than a grandparent) [syn: ancestor, ascendant, ascendent, root] [ant: descendant]
a preceding occurrence or cause or event
anything that precedes something similar in time; "phrenology was an antecedent of modern neuroscience" [syn: forerunner]
the referent of an anaphor; a phrase or clause that is referred to by an anaphoric pronoun
Wikipedia
In grammar, an antecedent is an expression (word, phrase, clause, etc.) that gives its meaning to a pro-form (pronoun, pro-verb, pro-adverb, etc.). A proform takes its meaning from its antecedent, e.g. Susan arrived late because traffic held her up. The noun her refers to and takes its meaning from Susan, so Susan is the antecedent of her. Proforms usually follow their antecedents, but sometimes they precede them, in which case one is, technically, dealing with postcedents instead of antecedents. The prefix ante- means 'before' or 'in front of', and post- means 'after' or 'behind'. The term antecedent stems from traditional grammar. The linguistic term that is closely related to antecedent and proform is anaphora. Theories of syntax explore the distinction between antecedents and postcedents in terms of binding.
In genealogy and in phylogenetic studies of evolutionary biology, antecedents or antecessors are predecessors in a family line. For example, one is the descendant of their grandparents, who are one's antecedents. This term has particular utility in evolutionary coalescent theory, which models the process of genetic drift in reverse time.
The antonym of antecedent is descendant.
An antecedent is a stimulus that cues an organism to perform a learned behavior. When an organism perceives an antecedent stimulus, it behaves in a way that maximizes reinforcing consequences and minimizes punishing consequences.
Antecedent stimuli that have been paired with reinforcing consequences activate centers of the brain involved in motivation, while antecedents that have been paired with punishing consequences activate brain centers involved in fear.
An antecedent is the first half of a hypothetical proposition, whenever the if-clause precedes the then-clause. It is also known for a person's principles to a possible or hypothetical issue. In some contexts the antecedent is called the protasis.
Examples:
- If P, then Q.
This is a nonlogical formulation of a hypothetical proposition. In this case, the antecedent is P, and the consequent is Q. In an implication, if ϕ implies ψ then ϕ is called the antecedent and ψ is called the consequent.
- If X is a man, then X is mortal.
"X is a man" is the antecedent for this proposition.
- If men have walked on the moon, then I am the king of France.
Here, "men have walked on the moon" is the antecedent.
An antecedent is a preceding event, condition, cause, phrase, or word.
- Antecedent moisture, a hydrologic term describing the relative wetness condition of a catchment.
- Antecedent (logic), the first half of a hypothetical proposition.
- Antecedent (behavioral psychology), the stimulus that occurs before a trained behavior.
- Antecedent (grammar), the noun phrase to which an anaphor refers.
- A musical phrase (music) may be an antecedent or consequent phrase.
- Antecedent (genealogy), antonym of descendant, genealogical predecessor in family line.
- Antecedent (law), in crime, the history of a person.
Antecedents are the life history and previous convictions of a defendant in a criminal case. They are colloquially known as "previous convictions" (or simply "previous") in the United Kingdom and "prior convictions" (or simply "priors") in the United States and Australia.
When a defendant is being sentenced for a crime, the court will be told antecedents. This information is usually considered by the judge/magistrate in deciding the sentence the defendant will receive. If a defendant pleads not guilty, previous convictions are not usually made known to the jury during the trial. That is to prevent prejudice against the defendant, but it is argued if the defendant has previous convictions for similar types of offence, this should be part of the evidence given at the trial.
Category:Criminal law Category:Legal terms
Usage examples of "antecedent".
Methods 1 and 3, involving antecedent stimulus control, and Methods 16, 17, and 18, involving control of the consequences, in order to develop plans for creating a new response, a new way of handling a problem.
The term is therefore a generic one, comprising all those faculties of mind which are concerned in conscious and adaptive action, antecedent to individual experience, without necessary knowledge of the relation between means employed and ends attained, but similarly performed under similar and frequently recurring circumstances by all the individuals of the same species.
Because Nabokov does not require the steady accompaniment of a fictional setting, because the details appear in a flash without antecedent or context or function except their own vividness, each description seems a miracle of creativity and stands out as if caught by the oblique morning sun.
The first premise of this argument is a thumbnail version of the doctrine known as determinism, which can be put by saying that every event is the upshot of antecedent causes.
The antecedent probability of such evidence coming into being is never so very small, because there are lots of other, natural, hypotheses that explain it.
If the antecedent probability that a result is due to anything else than chance is very, very low, then even enormously improbable results will not overturn it.
Principle not dwelling in the higher regions, one not powerful enough to ensure the permanence of the existences in which it is exhibited, one which in its coming into being and in its generative act is but an imitation of an antecedent Kind, and, as we have shown, cannot at every point possess the unchangeable identity of the Intellectual Realm.
Reason-Principles into complete actuality since, amid the clash of these antecedent Principles, Matter had already from its own stock produced the less good.
All, then, is antecedent and resultant, each sequent becoming in turn an antecedent once it has taken its place among things.
Let it be also conceded that small deviations from the antecedent colouring or form would tend to make some of their ancestors escape destruction, by causing them more or less frequently to be passed over or mistaken by their persecutors.
There is, in regard to government, as distinguished from the state, no antecedent right which binds the people, for antecedently to the existence of the government as a fact, the state is free to adopt any form that it finds practicable, or judges the wisest and best for itself.
All civilized nations are political nations, and are founded in the fact, not on rights antecedent to the fact.
There is no question of law or antecedent right in the case, but a simple question of fact, and the fact is determined by determining who it was that assumed it, exercised it, and has continued to exercise it.
And since at the source of this universal order there is no personal god or willing being, but only an absolutely impersonal force or void, beyond thought, beyond being, antecedent to categories, there has finally never been anyone anywhere responsible for anything -- the gods themselves being merely functionaries of an ever-revolving kaleidoscope of illusory appearances and disappearances, world without end.
Whereas here we have come to the primal Silence antecedent to sound, containing sound as potential, and to the Void antecedent to things, containing as potential the whole of space-time and its galaxies.