PhD students Class 7. Mea culpa! Latin phrase used in English = It is my fault From a Catholic...
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Transcript of PhD students Class 7. Mea culpa! Latin phrase used in English = It is my fault From a Catholic...
Mea culpa!
Latin phrase used in English = It is my fault
From a Catholic prayer Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.
Culpa → English culprit or culpable Maxima →English maximum
Many Latin expressions in English
Sometimes people use Latin just to show off
Use the English expression if there is one!
But you might see the Latin in reading
Sometimes fairly common usage
Latin for universities
Alma mater (caring mother) = your university
In loco parentis (in place of parents)
The curriculum is what you study Jiaoda and Fudan have different curricula
The goal of education
Mens sana in copore sano
(a sound mind in a sound body)
Same roots as:
Mental illness (sickness of mind)
Corpse (dead body), corporal punishment
Sane, insane, sanitary
American system of honors
He graduated:
cum laude (with praise)
magna cum laude
summa cum laude
British:
with distinction
with high distinction
Looking for a job?
American English:
Prepare a resumé
(French word)
British English:
Prepare a Curriculum Vitae (CV)
(Latin expression)
In citations
et al. (and others) Chicago, MLA: et al. for four or more Depends which journal
Don't try to use the full forms Masculine et alli Feminine et allae Neuter et alla
References
Ibidem (ibid.), in the same place Idem (id.), the same
Opere citato (op. cit.), in the work cited Often used as in [Bloggs, op.cit.]
Inter alia (i.a.), among others Et cetera (etc.), and the rest
Other things in text
Id est (i.e.), that is
Exempli gratia (e.g.), for example
Mixing those two up is a common error
Just use “that is” and “for example”?
(sic)
Indicates that you know there is an error
However, the error is not yours
He complains that he only (sic) gets 20,000 a month.
Nasty use of (sic)
Do not use “sic” as a weapon:
SAFER is Secure (sic) And Fast Encryption Routine
George is the manager (sic) of our department
Insults the opponent
Assumes the reader agrees with you
“Peace” to a different view
Acknowledge that there is another position
Arguing about that is not your topic
Parallel computers are becoming important in many applications (pace, Amdahl).
You probably should not use this.
Peace
Pax Romana
The peace created by the Roman Empire
Pax Sinica
Peace in Asia when Chinese Empire was strong
Pax Americana?
Used in proofs
Ergo = therefore
(I advise you not to use this.)
QED, quod erat demonstrandum
Means “which was to be proved”
Comes at the end of a proof
Other expressions in arguments
Ceteris paribus – other things being equal
(I advise you not to use this.)
Sine qua non -- without which, nothing
Nonlinearity is a sine qua non for a cipher
A fortiriori -- even more so, with stronger reason
If eight rounds are secure then a fortiriori, 32 are.
Types of reason for something
De facto, in fact Microsoft Windows is a de facto standard
De jure, in law
Ex offico, from the office
Ad hoc, literally “for this”
Invalid arguments
Ad populum (to the people) Ad hominem (to the man) Ex silentio (from silence)
Non sequitur (does not follow)
Bad explanations
Cum hoc ergo propter hoc (with this, therefore because of this) Correlation does not imply causality.
Post hoc ergo propter hoc, or just “post hoc” (after this, therefore because of this) Sequence does not imply causality.
Valid arguments
Reductio ad absurdum
Assume x, prove something that is impossible
Then x must be false
Modus ponens (method of placing)
If ((p->q) and p), then q
Modus tollens (method of denying)
If ((p->q) and ~q), then ~p
Pons asinorum
Bridge of asses (donkeys)
Bridge of fools
Euclid's Elements, fifth theorem:
Given an isosceles triangle (two sides equal)
Prove the angles opposite them are equal
Situations for experiments
In vivo, in life In vitro, in glass In utero, in the womb In vacuo, in a void
In silico (bad Latin), in silicon, by simulation
In vino veritas, in wine there is truth
Courts
In camera = in the room, not public In absentia
Habeus corpus, I want to have the body British law, prisoner must be brought to court
Cui bono? Good for who?
Other legal Latin
In flagrante delicto, blazing wrong
= caught red-handed
Non compis mentis
Amicus curae, friend of the court
Third party intervening in a trial
Sayings
Caveat emptor, let the buyer beware Casus belli, cause of (or excuse for) a war Quid pro quo, something for something Carpe diem, Seize the day!
Rene Descartes
Invented analytic geometry
Terms like linear equation
Cartesian co-ordinates (x,y)
Opposite: polar co-ordinates (d,θ)
Cogito ergo sum
I think, therefore I am
Julius Caesar
Veni, vidi, vici I came, I saw, I conquered (France)
Et tu, Brute? You too, Brutus?
Russian Czar/Tsar and German Kaiser
And now,for something completely different
Line from a Monty Python show
Want a really hard test of your English?
Try to understand Monty Python!
British comedy
Some native speakers miss the jokes
Back to articles
A, an, the
Most noticeable error in papers I see
Native speaker four-year-olds get these right
Almost all non-natives get some wrong
Especially Chinese & Japanese
Two categories of noun
Countable – must be singular or plural
One rabbit, several rabbits, 23 women, …
If singular, it must have a determiner
A cat, the cat, my cat, that cat, no cat, …
Uncountable – truth, justice, love, … bread, ...
Two types of article
Indefinite – a or an
Definite – the
Only if both speaker and hearer know which one
Indefinite, a/an
We propose a new algorithm for …
Fred has a new girlfriend …
(hearer does not know what algorithm or girl)
I heard that you wrote a book on Chinese history.
(speaker does not know what book)
I want to buy a car.
(neither speaker nor hearer knows what car)
A versus an depends only on sound
Fred is a genius, but his brother is an idiot
Words from French, with silent 'h', take 'an'
An hour, an honourable man, …
A hen, a hospital, ...
Words starting with 'u', depends on sound
An unknown, an uncle of mine, …
A university, a useful technique, ...
Often 'a' 1st time, 'the' later
We propose a new algorithm for …
The method gives accurate results.
Fred has a new girlfriend.
What the girl sees in him is beyond me.
'the' for known things
Breaking the RSA cryptosystem is trivial if you can factor the modulus.
The problem with that is that no-one has found an efficient algorithm for factoring.
The best known algorithm for large moduli is the General Number Field Sieve with overheads of order 2N/3
'the' only for specific things
The RSA system can produce digital signatures as well as secret messages.
The digital signatures from elliptic curve systems are smaller than the ones produced by RSA.
Or:
Digital signatures from elliptic curve systems are smaller than those produced by RSA.
Uncountable → Countable
Two liters of milk
Three blocks of ice
98,000 items of data
32K bits of data
Not abstract nouns – truth, justice, love, ...
Many nouns are both, +- count
Experience is the best teacher
I had an interesting experience yesterday
His experiences in China ...
Some have three different meanings
Glass is used to make windows
(non-count, the substance)
Can I have a glass of water?
(count, singular, a container)
She wears glasses.
(count, plural, frame with lenses)
Things that make a noun definite
Previously mentioned
We propose a new method … The method …
Superlative
The fastest previously published algorithm is …
Ordinal
The fourth paragraph on page six ...
More
Some (not all) modifiers after the noun
… the girl he loves
… the algorithm Bloggs proposed
But
Fred is reading a book about China
We give a solution to the problem of ...
Clear from context
Close the door. (hearer knows which door)
When the CPU receives an interrupt, it …
(reader knows which CPU)
Almost every definite noun has 'the'
Singular: The algorithm we propose is …
Plural: The sensors used in this system are …
Non-count: The memory usage is …
Definite noun without 'the'?
Only if there is another determiner
Our algorithm is faster than ...
Murgatroyd's sensors were not mobile …
This memory usage can be reduced by ...
Is the noun singular?
Test – would “one” be OK in front of it?
OK: One CPU, one algorithm, one cycle, ...
Not OK: one programs, one knowledge, …
If it is singular, it must have some determiner
Singular noun?
If it is definite, use 'the'
If not, use 'a' or 'an'
Every singular noun must have a determiner
A CPU, the CPU, my CPU, this CPU, Sun's CPU
Any CPU can calculate 2+2.
No current CPU runs at 100 GHz
Not singular?
Either plural or non-count
Article rules are the same for both
Use 'the' if it is definite
Otherwise, use no article
Examples
Definite: use 'the'
The method that Bloggs proposed is …
The papers that he read were …
The cost of this computation is …
Not definite: no article
Long papers are hard to write
The method uses exponential time and memory
What goes in here?
?? wireless vehicular networks have received ?? significant attention in ?? recent years.
What goes in here?
As ?? more and more vehicles are equipped with ?? onboard sensors, ?? large-scale urban monitoring with ?? vehicular networks becomes attractive.