NEW SANCTIONS The United Nations Security council voted to impose the most punishing sanctions yet on North Korea.
Question: what does “yet” function in the sentence? Grammatically and semantically?
It's an adverb and, in this sense, it means "thus far".
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But as i know, that yet is used with present perfect. How it is possible to indicate the meaning of “thus far” of past tense “voted” ? – user59167 Jan 5 '18 at 23:46
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Well, it could have been written in the present perfect above, but the implicit clause above is "...to impose [what are] the most punishing sanctions yet on North Korea," i.e., "they are the most punishing sanctions thus far on North Korea." – Nick Jan 6 '18 at 0:02
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Perhaps some further examples will help. You might think of yet with the meaning as of now. Usain Bolt ran the fastest time ever recorded at the time he ran it (as of then). As of now (or "thus far," or "so far"), it is still the fastest time that has ever been recorded, so nobody has broken the record yet. Maybe that helps a bit? – BobRodes Jan 6 '18 at 1:38
