PhD students

Class 7

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)

Not arguable

De gustibus non disputandum est

= You cannot argue about taste

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

Ultima Ratio Regum

“The last argument of kings”

Louis XIV of France had this put on cannon

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!

Things that go on

Ad infinitum, going on forever Ad nauseum, making me sick

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.

What goes in here?

Deploying ?? wireless relays is …

We consider ?? crucial problem of ?? optimal placement of ...