1

I was recently writing about a concept in computer science called a 'perceptron', otherwise known as an 'artificial neuron'. I asked the following question:

Where does the so-called 'loss' / 'loss function' fit into the idea of a perceptron / artificial neuron (as presented in the figure)?

The part of interest is

a perceptron / artificial neuron

"a perceptron" is valid grammar, but "a artificial neuron" would be invalid (it should be an artificial neuron). Is it still correct/valid English to write "a perceptron / artificial neuron" when using the forward slash punctuation mark? If not, then how should it be worded?

The Pointer
  • 189
  • 3
    Change the “/“ symbol to the word “or” to test for acceptability. I find it acceptable in your example, and you will find instances of that form in the literature. But if this is unacceptable to your reviewers, you can expand it to “a perceptron or an artificial neutron”. – Lawrence Jun 14 '21 at 01:23
  • @Lawrence Thanks for the comment. So "a perceptron or artificial neuron" would be acceptable? It seems to me that "a perceptron or artificial neuron" carries over the "a" to "artificial neuron", so that we get "a perceptron or a artificial neuron" as the expanded form, no? It seems to me that, as you said, "a perceptron or an artificial neuron" would be the most logical formulation. – The Pointer Jun 14 '21 at 01:34
  • @ThePointer I believe you just answered your own question. – GArthurBrown Jun 14 '21 at 02:54
  • @GArthurBrown But my question had to do with the forward slash rather than "or". – The Pointer Jun 14 '21 at 02:56
  • 1
    @ThePointer The forward slash stands in for or – GArthurBrown Jun 14 '21 at 02:57
  • @GArthurBrown Ok, well in that case I guess that clears things up. – The Pointer Jun 14 '21 at 02:57
  • 3
    There's no parallelism required when a/an is followed by a phrase. All that matters is whether the word is immediately followed by a consonant or vowel sound. – Barmar Jun 15 '21 at 05:32
  • @Barmar Can you please elaborate? What you're saying isn't clear to me. – The Pointer Jun 15 '21 at 05:33
  • 1
    You use "a" because the next word starts with the consonant "p". The word "artificial" is irrelevant because it's not after "a". You don't have to make the article agree with both words (how could you?). – Barmar Jun 15 '21 at 05:36
  • @Barmar Ok, I see. Thanks for the clarification. – The Pointer Jun 15 '21 at 05:52
  • a cat/an owl. It has to go with both. You can't use use one article here since the other takes an. – Lambie Jan 30 '22 at 18:07

1 Answers1

1

Using a/an only changes with the word that follows it, not subsequent ones. "A perceptron/an artificial neuron" would also be correct. It works about the same with "or" - "a perceptron or artificial neuron", "a perceptron or an artificial neuron".

KillingTime
  • 6,206
nonk
  • 17
  • 2