monoton fallende Funktion

English translation: monotonically decreasing function.

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
German term or phrase:monoton fallende Funktion
English translation:monotonically decreasing function.
Entered by: Dr. Fred Thomson

15:37 Nov 25, 2004
German to English translations [PRO]
Tech/Engineering - Mathematics & Statistics / image segmentation
German term or phrase: monoton fallende Funktion
This term appears in the following context:

Waehlt man fuer c(m, n) die absolute Intensitaetsabweichung des Bildpunktes
Dr. Fred Thomson
United States
Local time: 07:48
monotone decreasing function
Explanation:
Here is just one of many occurences on the web:
http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/education/calc-init/integration/CO2...
Selected response from:

Alan Johnson
Germany
Local time: 14:48
Grading comment
Thanks, Alan. You were first, but I do like Richard's monotonically decreasing function.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
5 +3monotonically decreasing function
Richard Benham
4 +2monotone decreasing function
Alan Johnson
4monotonic decreasing function
Roddy Stegemann
4 -1monotone regression function
Wolfgang Pfirrmann


  

Answers


4 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +2
monotone decreasing function


Explanation:
Here is just one of many occurences on the web:
http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/education/calc-init/integration/CO2...

Alan Johnson
Germany
Local time: 14:48
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 18
Grading comment
Thanks, Alan. You were first, but I do like Richard's monotonically decreasing function.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Richard Benham: ...or monotonic(ally) decreasing function. "Monotone decreasing" is a grammatically weird expression we got from German mathematicians, but it has stuck.//The first thing I saw when I looked at your ref. was "monotonically decreasing"....
18 mins

agree  Cilian O'Tuama
28 mins
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32 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): -1
monotone regression function


Explanation:
regressions seems to be the term used more than declining in statistical analysis


    Reference: http://www.telecom.tuc.gr/~nikos/00747782.pdf
Wolfgang Pfirrmann
United States
Local time: 08:48
Native speaker of: Native in GermanGerman

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
disagree  Richard Benham: Regression is something completely different.
2 mins
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34 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +3
monotonically decreasing function


Explanation:
When I did undergraduate mathematics, the first expression I learned for this concept was "monotone in-/decreasing function". I thought at the time that this was a little ungramamtical, and, when I later observed that the term "monotonically in-/decreasing" also occurs quite frequently in the literature, I was relieved and resolved to use it in preference to its grammatically suspect cousin.

A monotonically decreasing function is one that never goes up--it either stays the same or goes down. If it's monotonically *strictly* decreasing, then it doesn't even stay the same, but always goes down.

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Note added at 38 mins (2004-11-25 16:16:26 GMT)
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(I shoud add that \"mit e(m,n)\" may change the translation. Maybe \"the function [formula] which is monotonically decreasing in e(m,n)\". I can\'t be 100% sure about this without seeing the formulae.)

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Note added at 44 mins (2004-11-25 16:22:14 GMT)
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Oops! \"should\" above.

For those people who haven\'t grown out of counting Googlies, I will quote the following figures:
monotonously-decreasing-fucntion: 512
monotonic-decreasing-function: 3,040
monotone-decreasing-function: 3,550
monotonically-deccreasing-function: 16,200

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Note added at 50 mins (2004-11-25 16:27:44 GMT)
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And for increasing functions:
-ously: 626
-onic: 4,800
-one: 6,590
-onically: 24,300

And to anyone who would suggest that the figures for \"increasing\" are irrelevant, I would point out that the two concepts are symmetrical and interdefinable and usually defined together.

Richard Benham
France
Local time: 14:48
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 12

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Zareh Darakjian Ph.D.: Yes, for adverb. Also I have yet to see "monotone decreasing function" used...may be very rarerly.
2 hrs
  -> IT occurs. I think it came from a careless DE>EN translator not noticing that in "monoton fallende Funktion" "monoton" is uninflected and therefore an ADVERB.

agree  Ken Cox
2 hrs
  -> Thanks Ken.

agree  Sven Petersson: I was wrong, you are right!
5 hrs
  -> Thanks Sven. It was good of you to come out and say it.
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
monotonic decreasing function


Explanation:
This discussion reminds me of another that we had a while back with regard to the use of Anglophone and Anglophonic. May I now offer the following:

The structure of the phrase monotonic decreasing function consists of an adjective (monotonic), a present participle used as an adjective (decreasing), and a noun (function). In mathematics there exist both monotonic functions and decreasing functions. Thus, it should be of no surprise to anyone to learn that there also exists something called monotonic decreasing functions.

If only grammarians knew how to write!

Cheers,
and
Happy Thanksgiving Day
from Hong Kong!

Hamo



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Note added at 1 hr 13 mins (2004-11-25 16:50:35 GMT)
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Disclaimer: My full use of this and other forums has been restricted for reasons unknown, so please forgive my lack of direct support for answers offered by other contributors and critical assessment of non-contributors who are misleading and/or abusive.


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Note added at 8 hrs 38 mins (2004-11-26 00:16:28 GMT)
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With regard to the behavior of the function, its value can be monotonically decreasing with regard to a single variable or with regard to all variables. Alternatively, c(m,n) may not even be the functional value in question, as the value of c which is defined by m and n, may be a variable to another function whose value is monotonically decreasing. By way of example, g = f(c(m,n)) where m and n determine the value of c, and c determines the value of g via the function f(c).

In effect, Richard Benham\'s remark with regard to the function\'s further particulars is tangential to the translation in question.

Roddy Stegemann
United States
Local time: 06:48
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 4

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Richard Benham: What you say is true, but it is more natural to use an adverb, because the function decreases in a monotonic way. My answer has some Google counts for the various options. Not that I think Google counts alone say much.
34 mins
  -> What is natural to a grammarian and what is natural to a native speaker are often at odds. The former looks for and prescribes descriptive rules, the latter uses the language to achieve effective communication. Google comes down on both sides.
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