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Is 'No' a complete sentence?

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app103:

Interesting discussion on whether or not 'No' is a complete sentence.

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=588312

mouser:
i love debates like this, nice find app. www.everything2.com looks interesting too.

Carol Haynes:
Interesting discussion on whether or not 'No' is a complete sentence.
-app103 (September 03, 2006, 11:04 AM)
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LOL .... Too much time on your hands April !!

Actually "Go!" isn't a complete sentence either because it could mean "Go away", "I go", "You go", "We go" or "They go" which are distinct different meanings - and a further part of the thought is required "I go to work." etc.

I would say both No! and Go! are exclamations which only have meaning in context.

KenR:
Interesting discussion on whether or not 'No' is a complete sentence.
-app103 (September 03, 2006, 11:04 AM)
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I would say both No! and Go! are exclamations which only have meaning in context.
-Carol Haynes (September 03, 2006, 11:14 AM)
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As Carol Haynes indicated, these would be exclamations. That being the case, however, I fail to see how that preclude them from being sentences and I was certainly taught that these ARE examples of one word sentences. Not that it matters, but in all likelihood, there would be a context in print for them.

Oh yes, and one more thing: a sentence requires a subject and a verb. The subject here would be implied as the receiver of the command. The verb, no, is a modification of "do not". As there is a subject and a verb, this IS a complete sentence.

Ken

Carol Haynes:
To quote the Oxford English Dictionary:

6 a. A series of words in connected speech or writing, forming the grammatically complete expression of a single thought; in popular use often (= PERIOD n. 10), such a portion of a composition or utterance as extends from one full stop to another. In Grammar, the verbal expression of a proposition, question, command, or request, containing normally a subject and a predicate (though either of these may be omitted by ellipsis).

from www.oed.com
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There are actually 9 full sections on sentences but this is the one that seems to get to the heart of what a sentence is.

On this basis "No!" seems an unlikely candidate for a sentence.

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