antecedent

ante·ced·ent (an′tə sēd′'nt)

adjective

going or coming before in time, order, or logic; prior; previous; preceding

Etymology: ME & OFr < L antecedens, prp. of antecedere, antecede

noun

any happening or thing prior to another
anything logically preceding
one's ancestry, past life, training, etc.
Gram. the word, phrase, or clause to which a pronoun refers “man” is the antecedent of “who” in “the man who spoke”
Logic the part of a conditional proposition that states the condition
Math. the first term or numerator of a ratio

an′te·ced′·ently adverb

modif.

Preposition: of

pronoun: The context of Acts 14:23 indicates that only Barnabas and Paul ( the antecedents of the pronoun they ) were involved in the choosing.

Converse of object

trace: He traces the antecedents of this; an alien style, contemporary dance, was imposed which led to confusion in the muscles.
examine: Or it may take the form of examining the demographic antecedents of the characteristics in question.
know: And yet in this instance, I may not at all know the causal antecedents of the appearances in question.
have: He admits to having Irish antecedents or cousins far removed.
find: Of course, one can find neo-platonic antecedents to these intuitions, at least to the first of them.
give: Given the literary antecedents of the area the choice wasn't all that bad.

Adjective modifier

causal: EITHER What causal antecedents does an intentional action have to have?
historical: Much of today's mathematical pedagogy derived from distant historical antecedents.
obvious: Note that the most obvious antecedent for " this " is Jesus Christ.
true: In that case, there is no ambiguity in calling conditionals with true antecedents ` true ' or ` false ' .
common: Acquired equivalence between cues trained with a common antecedent.
political: David Hoile and others have given valid reasons for suggesting that the Levelers were the political antecedents of present day libertarians.

Modifies a noun

poliomyelitis: Evidence of remote denervation consistent with antecedent poliomyelitis was demonstrated in all patients by electromyography or muscle biopsy or both.
strengthening: The following is an example where ` antecedent strengthening ' seems to fail.
probability: For Swinburne, who in his works often discusses this antecedent probability, this accords with his predictability criterion.
recovery: Assets in such cases might consist of antecedent recoveries, income payments orders, aging book debts or equity in the matrimonial home.
task: In the figure below, the inquiry's antecedent task is the action.
breach: The present trustees shall thereupon be discharged but without prejudice to their liability for any antecedent breach of trust.

Noun used with modifier

quantifier: It is widely held that in such cases, the pronouns function semantically as variables bound by their quantifier antecedents.

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