The English Language

[Ian Thompson]

What does ceteris paribus mean in:
I have often seen that claimed, though I have never seen a conclusive analytical demonstration that it is the case. But certainly, ceteris paribus, White has a clear advantage and reasonable winning chances
?

Can you not use Google, some other search engine of your choice, or a translation engine to answer questions like this yourself.

[soheil_hooshdaran]

Of course I googled the term, but I faced anbiguity
Does it mean, other conditions being equal? Other conditions unchanged? What conditions?

[Ian Thompson]

Of course I googled the term, but I faced anbiguity
Does it mean, other conditions being equal? Other conditions unchanged? What conditions?

We'd need to see what is being described to answer that.

It means that White has a clear advantage because of something you haven't stated, unless there is some other negative aspect of the position that negates the advantage from the thing you haven't stated. So "ceteris paribus" means "assuming there is no other negative aspect" to the position.

[E Michael White]

Of course I googled the term, but I faced ambiguity. Does it mean, other conditions being equal? Other conditions unchanged? What conditions?

Yes you're right it can be ambiguous. Sensible writers don't use Latin these days as for the last 50 years the teaching of Latin in UK schools has been in decline. The exception being etc (= et cetera) which everyone knows.

What you have discovered is technically known as a Latin ablative absolute with an implied participle. The implied participle is normally "being" or "remaining" which can lead to ambiguity. It could be "others things being equal" or "other things remaining equal".

Oddly recently the phrase has made a partial comeback in the Brexit era; UK economists and politicians have been using this phrase to hedge their bets as no one really knows how things will turn out economically after Brexit.

[John McKenna]

It was good of Ian T & E Michael to explain the details and wider meaning of ceteris paribus.

Emanuel Lasker - a great academic as well as a great player - made use of it, and other Latin terms, in his chess books.

[Brian Towers]

Sensible writers don't use Latin these days as for the last 50 years the teaching of Latin in UK schools has been in decline. The exception being etc (= et cetera) which everyone knows.

Well, and e.g (exempli gratia) and i.e. (id est).

Oh, perhaps also NB (nota bene).

There again PS (post scriptum).

Then there's post prandial, ad hoc, a priori, alias, in vitro, ad infinitum, reductio ad absurdum, de facto, de jure, de re, Dei gratia, deus ex machina, de minimus non curat lex (very important in my home beer and wine making days as a student), addendum, affidavit, alibi, alma mater, alter ego, ego, id, superego, alumnus, anno domini, annus horribilis, veni, vidi, vici, atrium, aurora borealis, ave Maria, (in) vino veritas, vade mecum, curriculum vitae, viva voce, vox populi, verbatim, veto, versus, via, vice versa, carpe diem, ece homo, cogito ergo sum, emeritus, ipso facto, ex gratia, post mortem, casus belli, caveat emptor, circa, cui bono, mea culpa, sine qua non, status quo, stet, [sic], sub judice, subpoena, sui generis, summa cum laude, tabula rasa, tempis fugit, ultra vires, semper fidelis, pro forma, pro bono, prima facie, persona non grata, per se, per diem, per capita, per ardua ad astra, pax vobiscum, pax Romana (Brittanica, etc), panem et circenses, Opus Dei, magnum opus, o tempora, o mores!, non sequitur, ne plus ultra, modus operandi, modus tollens, modus pollens, modus vivendi, mens sana in corpore sano, Magna Carta, post tenebras lux, lex talionis.

I better stop before I make a lapsus manus although I could go on ad nauseam.

[Ian Thompson]

Sensible writers don't use Latin these days as for the last 50 years the teaching of Latin in UK schools has been in decline. The exception being etc (= et cetera) which everyone knows.

Well, and e.g (exempli gratia) and i.e. (id est).

I was tempted to mention these two as well, but then I thought it would be wrong to say everyone knows them. It's very common for people to write i.e. when they mean e.g..

[Brian Towers]

So, what have the Romans ever done for us? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y7tvauOJMHo .

[soheil_hooshdaran]

Why would some authors list the moves vertically instead of horizontally, e.g
1. e4 e5
or eve4n
1.e4 e5
2.Nk3 Nc6
?

[IM Jack Rudd]

It takes up more space on the page, but it looks nicer.

[soheil_hooshdaran]

I translated the heading for my club, "Hooshdaran Chess Club", but the banner-maker wrote it as"Ches Club Hooshdaran".
Aside from 'ches', is his title also grammatically wrong?

[Roger de Coverly]

Aside from 'ches', is his title also grammatically wrong?

The usual construction is xxx chess club. Other languages do it differently, in German they invariably express it as chess club xxx.

You can put "chess" first. There's Chess Scotland which is the national Federation for Scotland. There's Chess England which is a marketing name used by an English organiser. There's also Chess Devon which is the website of the Devon County Association.

[soheil_hooshdaran]

I wanted the heading to appear natural English. It is "Ches Club Hooshdaran", not its Farsi equivalent.

[soheil_hooshdaran]

Data are called static if all their feature values do not change with time, or change negligibly.

means if some of the values changecd or means if none of them change?

[IM Jack Rudd]

The same construction can be used to mean either; I wish authors wouldn't use it.

Does the text go on to define dynamic data?