Prepositions in English

By Galina Vitkova

Prepositions are another part of English, where students often make mistakes. The helpful method how to cope with the topic is to learn prepositions by heart together with sentences or expression where they occur.

The prepositions cannot be distinguished by any formal features. In English, some prepositions are short, typically containing five letters or fewer. However, a significant number of multi-word prepositions exist in it. Throughout the English language development new prepositions have come into use, old ones have disappeared, and the meaning of existing prepositions has changed. The prepositions constitute a closed word class to which no new items can normally be added, and that usually comprises a relatively small number of items.

The preposition usually precedes the noun. The noun does not necessarily come immediately after the preposition, however, since determiners and adjectives can intervene (e.g. after the storm, on white horses, under the old regime).
If the prepositions are not followed by a noun, they are called “stranded” prepositions, e.g.:

Preposition The presentation is about Internet marketing.

Stranded Preposition This is Internet marketing the presentation is about.

Prepositions are invariable in their form, that is, they do not take any inflections.

Simple and complex prepositions

The prepositions that contain a single word, such as in, of, at, and to, are referred as simple prepositions. Complex prepositions consist of two- or three-word combinations acting as a single unit. Here are some examples:

according to along with

apart from because of

contrary to due to

except for instead of

prior to regardless of

These combinations come before a noun, too:

*according to Shakespeare *contrary to my advice *due to illness.

Three-word combinations often have the following pattern:

Simple Preposition + Noun + Simple Preposition, for example:

in aid of on behalf of

in front of in accordance with

by means of in line with in relation to

with reference to with respect to

Again, the combinations come before a noun:

*in aid of charity *in front of the Windows *in line with inflation.

Marginal prepositions

A number of prepositions have affinities with other word classes. In particular, some prepositions are verbal in form:

Following the rules, they succeeded in online business.
I am writing to you regarding the concepts of my e-book.
The whole team was there, including John

These prepositions are referred as marginal prepositions. Other marginal prepositions include: concerning, considering, excluding, given, granted, pending.

Non-verbal marginal prepositions include worth (it’s worth ten pounds) and minus (ten minus two is eight).

English prepositions and verbs

In technical texts we very often meet verbs, which are always used with certain prepositions. At the site http://www.english-at-home.com/grammar/prepositions-and-verbs/ the list of such verbs and their corresponding prepositions are enumerated. Learn by heart the verbs and the prepositions together. Practise their use as much as possible to feel more confident.

PS: See more information about prepositions of time on Jottings on English Grammar.

References:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_English_prepositions#Single_words
• http://www.ucl.ac.uk/internet-grammar/preps/preps.htm
• http://www.english-at-home.com/grammar/prepositions-and-verbs/

Universal serial bus (USB)

By Jiří Sekera

Dear friends of Technical English,

Here is another technical text written by my student. I think the text can be a good pattern of technical writing. Moreover, the text contains very useful information, which might be interesting for people communicating via the Internet. Galina Vitkova

USB is the most widespread connector for connecting external devices to a computer. It’s used to connect devices like printers, keyboards, mice, digital cameras, game implements etc. USB is a successor of the older means of connecting like serial or parallel ports, PS/2, game ports and others.

Conception of USB was developed within cooperation of the companies Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Lucent, NEC, Microsoft and Philips.

There are two basic types of connectors: type A (USB host) and type B (USB device).

Nowadays we have also mini or micro connectors, which are used in digital cameras, mobile phones or in mp3 players.

The scheme of the cable in this case is depicted below:

Pin	Name	Colour	Descript.
1	VBus	Red	5 VDC
2	D-	White	Data -
3	D+	Green	Data+
4	GND	Black	Ground

Legenda

Vbus – is used for control of the host by a computer

D– is used for setting of devices

D+ is used for setting of devices

GND – ground cable

VDC – special mark of volts

USB has two versions, USB 1.1 and USB 2.0, which principally differ from each other just by the speed of transfer.

USB 1.1 has two types of the speed:

• a low-speed bus (the maximum speed of transfer is 1,5 Mbit/s);
• a full-speed bus with the maximum speed of transfer 12 Mbit/s.

USB 2.0 ensures connecting hi-speed devices (the maximum speed of transfer 480Mbit/s). These devices are connected in the same way as the full-speed devices, change of transfer speed is solved by software.

Besides the speed it is necessary to distinguish a type of the power source:

• Bus-powered devices are supplied directly from a bus.
• Self-powered devices have their own power source.

Basic characteristics

• The data cable cannot be longer than 5 metres; if it is longer, it can cause problems with data transfer.
• Plug & play means that we can connect devices without installation of drivers.

Alternatives and the future

The alternative type of the connection is the FireWire (IEEE 1394) provided by the Apple Company, which has the maximum speed of transfer 800Mbit/s. It’s being used to transfer videos from digital cameras, but it isn’t too widespread.

In the future there should be USB Wireless. Its hypothetic speed of transfer is 110Mbit/s at a distance of 10 metres up to 480Mbit/s at a distance of 3 metres. A new version with the maximum speed 4,8Gbit/s is also developed.

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Students do not care about articles

By Galina Vitkova

Unfortunately, the last Final Test for advanced students, which took place at the beginning of January 2009, confirmed it again and again. Even very good students made mistakes when concerning articles.

English has just two types of articles: definite (the) and indefinite (a, an). In spite of this learning articles is a hard nut to crack for ESL (English as 2nd Language) students. Nevertheless, it is not difficult to understand their usage and articles can be learnt with practice. Only it is necessary to sense the existence of articles in English. English has articles and their role is very important.

Origin of articles

Linguists believe that the common ancestor of the Indo-European languages did not have articles. Most of the languages in this family do not have articles just now; there is no article in some modern Indo-European languages, especially in Slavic languages – Russian, Slovak and Czech etc. (the only Slavic languages that have articles are Bulgarian and Macedonian), in the Baltic languages – Latvian, Lithuanian and Latgalian. So mistakes with the use of the and other determiners are common for people learning English as ESL and whose native language does not involve articles. In the etymologies of many other languages, the definite article arose by a demonstrative pronoun or adjectives. In English the and that originated as a result of common developments from the same Old English system, which had definite articles for formerly existed genders.

Old English (also called Anglo-Saxon sometimes) is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written in parts of what are now England and south-eastern Scotland between the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century. In Middle English these had all merged into þe, and later into the word the, i.e. the definite article in Modern English.

Use of articles in English

It depends mainly on whether you are referring to any member of a group, or to a specific member of a group:

Indefinite article a (an)

The English indefinite article reflects its roots in the number word one. Therefore it can only be used with singular countable nouns. A (an) signals that the noun refers to any member of a group as follows (the examples are taken from the Purdue University Online Writing Lab):

• a + singular noun beginning with a consonant: a boy
• an + singular noun beginning with a vowel: an elephant
• a + singular noun beginning with a consonant sound: a user (sounds like ‘yoo-zer,’ i.e. begins with a consonant ‘y’ sound, so ‘a’ is used)
• some + plural noun: some girls

If the noun is preceded by adjectives, the choice between a and an depends on the initial sound of the adjective that immediately follows the article:

• a broken egg
• an unusual problem
• a European country (sounds like ‘yer-o-pi-an,’ i.e. begins with consonant ‘y’ sound)

Moreover, in English, the indefinite article is used to indicate membership in a profession, nation, or religion.

* I am a teacher. * Brian is an Irishman. * Seiko is a practicing Buddhist.

Definite Article the

The only definite article in English the is also the most frequently used word in the English language.

The is used with singular and plural, countable and uncountable nouns when both the speaker and listener know the thing or idea already. The indicates that the noun is definite, that it refers to a particular member of a group (see details on Purdue University Online Writing Lab). The is also used when a noun refers to something unique:

* the White House * the theory of relativity * the federal budget

Further, use of a, an, and the depending on whether the noun following the article holds one of these paired qualities:

• Countable vs. noncountable – a (an) is used if the noun can be counted
• First vs. subsequent mention – a (an) is used to introduce a noun when it is mentioned for the first time; the is used afterward each time you mention that same noun.
• General vs. specific – a (an) and the can all be used to indicate that a noun refers to the whole class to which individual countable nouns belong; this use of articles is called generic (or general):

A tiger is a dangerous animal. (any individual tiger)
The tiger is a dangerous animal. (all tigers: tiger as a generic category).

Reduction and omission

In news headlines and informal writing, such as notes or diaries, the articles and some other particles are often omitted, for example, “Must pick up prescription at pharmacy today.“

Geographic uses

In English as a rule most cities and countries never take the definite article. Nevertheless, in general it is used with many country names which derive from names of island groups (the Philippines), mountain ranges (the Lebanon), deserts, (the Sudan), seas, rivers and geographic regions (the Middle East).

The definite article is always used before compound names of the country, e.g. the United States, the Soviet Union, the Czech Republic.

Find very good and cogent review of English articles use in “A, An, The” definite and indefinite articles in English – Beginning Guide … .

References:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Article
• When Do You Use Articles: A, An, The
• The Use and Non-Use of Articles
• http://esl.about.com/library/beginner/blathe.htm

Robots – a follow-up of the discussion

By Galina Vitkova

In order to better understand qualities and threats of military autonomous robots let´s look through the basic terms or concepts used in this branch. What are the robots like? Roboticists (people who develop and build robots) state for robots is typical that they have a reprogrammable brain (a computer) and a physical body controlled and moved by this computer – see for details

http://science.howstuffworks.com/military, robot.htm, www.roboticstrends.com, www.gyre.org/node, www.defenseindustrydaily.com, www.foreignpolicy.com.

Robot Basics

The overwhelming majority of robots have several common features. First of all, almost all robots have a movable body. Some of them have only motorized wheels, and others have dozens of movable segments. Like the bones in your body, the individual segments are connected together with joints. These jointed segments are set in motion by actuators. Some robots use electric motors as actuators; some use a hydraulic system and some employ a pneumatic system.

Most robots are powered by a battery or sometimes they plug into the wall. Hydraulic robots also need a pump to pressurize the hydraulic fluid, and pneumatic robots need an air compressor or compressed air tanks.

The actuators are all wired to an electrical circuit. The circuit powers electrical motors directly, and it activates the hydraulic or pneumatic system by manipulating electrical valves. The robot’s computer controls everything attached to the circuit. To move the robot, the computer switches on all the necessary motors and valves. Not all robots have sensory systems, and few have the ability to see, hear, smell or taste. The most of robots have ability to monitor their own motion.

Roboticists can combine these elements in an infinite number of ways to create robots of unlimited complexity.

Robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI is probably the most exciting field in robotics. It’s certainly the most controversial: everybody agrees that a robot can work in an assembly line, but there’s no consensus on whether a robot can ever be intelligent.

Like the term “robot” itself, artificial intelligence is difficult to define. Ultimate AI would imitate the human thought process. This would include the ability to learn just about anything, the ability to reason, the ability to use language and the ability to formulate original ideas. Roboticists are nowhere near achieving this level of AI, but they have made a lot of progress with more limited AI. Today’s AI machines can imitate some specific elements of intellectual ability.

The basic idea of AI problem-solving is very simple, though its execution is complicated. First, the AI robot (its computer) gathers facts about a situation through sensors or human input. The computer compares this information to stored data and decides what the information signifies. Of course, the computer can only solve problems it’s programmed to solve – it doesn’t have any generalized analytical ability.

Some modern robots have also the ability to learn in a limited capacity. Learning robots recognize if a certain action (moving its legs in a certain way, for instance) achieved a desired result. The robot stores this information and attempts the successful action the next time it confronts the same situation. Again, modern computers can only do this in very limited situations. They can’t absorb any sort of information like a human can. Some robots can learn by mimicking human actions. In Japan, roboticists have taught a robot to dance by demonstrating the moves themselves.

A number of robotics experts predict that robotic evolution will ultimately turn us into cyborgs – humans integrated with machines. Possibly, people in the future could load their minds into a sturdy robot and live for thousands of years!

In any case, robots will certainly play a larger role in our lives in the future (see Statistics on robots). They will influence our daily life in the same way as computers did it in the 1980s.

Autonomous robots

Autonomous robots can act on their own, independent of any controller. The basic idea is to program the robot to respond a certain way to outside stimuli.

This type of robots has a bumper sensor to detect obstacles. When you turn the robot on, it speeds along in a straight line. When it hits an obstacle, the bang pushes in its bumper sensor. The robot’s program tells it to back up, turn to the right and move forward again. In this way, the robot changes direction any time it meets an obstacle.

Today, advanced robots have modern programs and sensor systems to be able effectively navigate a variety of environments. Simpler mobile robots use infrared or ultrasound sensors to see obstacles. More advanced robots can analyse and adapt to unfamiliar environments. These robots may associate certain terrain patterns with certain actions. A rover robot, for example, might construct a map of the land in front of it based on its visual sensors. If the map shows a very bumpy terrain pattern, the robot knows to travel another way.