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  • `Several' misapplied?

    From Anton Shepelev@2:221/6 to All on Mon Mar 29 01:18:14 2021
    Hello, all

    The chief of a computer-science laboratory where my friend works
    condemned his usage of the word `several' in the the following
    sentence:

    We present several new piecewise-polynomial kernels for image
    interpolation.

    on the ground that it is a typical mistake made by those who
    learned English in a Russian school. Perhaps I was not sufficiently
    diligent in the English classes of my Russian school, but I see no
    fault in that sentence, except maybe for a missing introductory
    phrase, such as "In this article, we present..." Do you?

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  • From mark lewis@1:3634/12 to Anton Shepelev on Sun Mar 28 19:34:32 2021
    Re: `Several' misapplied?
    By: Anton Shepelev to All on Mon Mar 29 2021 01:18:14


    The chief of a computer-science laboratory where my friend works
    condemned his usage of the word `several' in the the following
    sentence:

    We present several new piecewise-polynomial kernels for image
    interpolation.

    on the ground that it is a typical mistake made by those who
    learned English in a Russian school. Perhaps I was not sufficiently
    diligent in the English classes of my Russian school, but I see no
    fault in that sentence, except maybe for a missing introductory
    phrase, such as "In this article, we present..." Do you?

    there's nothing wrong with that sentence... "several" specifically means "three or more but not too many more" ;)

    the prepending of "In this article" doesn't really add anything to the sentence...

    why did the chief of a computer-science laboratory think there was a problem with it?


    )\/(ark
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  • From Ardith Hinton@1:153/716 to Anton Shepelev on Tue Mar 30 23:20:13 2021
    Hi, Anton! Recently you wrote in a message to All:

    The chief of a computer-science laboratory where my
    friend works condemned his usage of the word `several'
    in the the following sentence:

    We present several new piecewise-polynomial kernels
    for image interpolation.

    on the ground that it is a typical mistake made by
    those who learned English in a Russian school. Perhaps
    I was not sufficiently diligent in the English classes
    of my Russian school,


    Don't sell yourself short! IMHO this individual's reaction probably says more about him or her than it does about you.... :-Q



    but I see no fault in that sentence, except maybe for
    a missing introductory phrase, such as "In this article,
    we present..." Do you?


    No. But I can see how some folk might have a wonderful time arguing about the precise numbers involved when we use terms like "a couple", "a few", "several", and "many". In informal speech "a couple" can mean two or three... and within certain limits the other terms also refer to an unspecified number.

    How many kernels was your friend offering? If the actual number was more than two or three but fewer than "many" he or she used the term "several" quite correctly, according to a couple of English dictionaries I read. Mark & Dallas & I also agree on this. However, one source says "more than two". :-)




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  • From Anton Shepelev@2:221/6 to mark lewis on Sat Apr 3 14:42:20 2021
    )\/(ark Lewis:

    there's nothing wrong with that sentence... "several"
    specifically means "three or more but not too many more"
    ;)

    the prepending of "In this article" doesn't really add
    anything to the sentence...

    why did the chief of a computer-science laboratory think
    there was a problem with it?

    My friend's account of it was so vague and incomplete that I
    daredn't try retell it here. It included, for example, a
    contrast with "a function of several arguments", which the
    chief considered correct and which is in fact an interesting
    example of `several' used in technical language with a mean-
    ing that is wider than the general one: any naturual number
    greater than unity.

    As to my friend's article, he has decided to replace `sever-
    al' with `a number of' because he likes it better.

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