word closest in meaning to imposition

[angelsrolls]

Hello,

"The imposition of sanctions against that country would not yield a beneficial result."

Which word can be a replacement for imposition? Can the word be changed to levying with the meaning remaining intact?

 

[GoesStation]

No. Levying means collecting money. You can replace the three words "the imposition of" with imposing, saving fifty percent of the syllables.

 

[teechar]

I would accept "the levying of sanctions" in the above, but I agree that "imposing sanctions" works better.

 

[angelsrolls]

What makes you feel that such account works better? Is it intuition or saving on syllables?

 

[GoesStation]

What makes you feel that such account works better? Is it intuition or saving on syllables?

Levying really doesn't work with "sanctions". We use it with taxes or duties, where the power levying the tax or duty collects money. Sanctions are rules restricting trade which are imposed​ on a country.

In my state, a common issue in elections is a local levy, which means a tax on property. When a tax levy passes, property owners have to pay a percentage of their property's assessed value every year. The village, township, city, or county that collects the tax levies the money.

 

[angelsrolls]

So you say the scope of the act of levying is confined exclusively to taxes or duties; sanctions aren’t included.

 

[GoesStation]

So you say the scope of the act of levying is confined exclusively to taxes or duties; sanctions aren’t included.

Yes. "To levy" means "to collect". You don't "collect" sanctions.

 

[angelsrolls]

But the same is true of duties. What do you mean by "collect" and "duty"? I'm asking this because a duty is not something that can be collected.

 

[GoesStation]

But the same is true of duties. What do you mean by "collect" and "duty"? I'm asking this because a duty is not something that can be collected.

Taxes imposed on goods crossing a border are duties. See definitions 8, 9, and 10 here.

 

[bubbha]

Hence the term "duty free".

 

[tzfujimino]

I think it's a matter of collocation. If you look up the verb "levy" in this dictionary, for example, you'll find that it means "impose (a tax, fee, or fine)".
So, the word the word "levy" collocates with those words in parentheses.

I visited COCA and fraze.it.

As GS and teechar say, the "imposition" works better with "sanction".

 

[GoesStation]

I'm having trouble articulating this, but it's not just a matter of impose working better. It just doesn't make sense to say that you're levying a sanction. It would be like saying that the person giving blood was collecting it.

 

[teechar]

A quick search on Google for levy and sanctions yielded the following results for me.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/05...rth-korea-nuclear-kim-jong-un-asia-diplomacy/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jul/25/us-house-representatives-sanctions-russia

http://thehill.com/policy/national-...levy-new-sanctions-on-iranian-entities-report

It (levy) is used, but perhaps not as much as impose.

 

[GoesStation]

I hadn't noticed the trend, but it's not surprising that levy is starting to be used as Teechar noted in post #13. I don't recommend that learners adopt the new meaning, but quite likely it will be unremarkable in ten or twenty years.