| 词组 | parameter |
| 释义 | parameter Sometime in 1958 New York Times columnist James Reston included parameter in a list of baffling technical terms he did not like. The newspaper in June of that year reported the list had brought in a large number of protests from "scientific gentlemen," several of whom essayed to define the term for laypeople. A typical definition, said the Times, was this: • A parameter is a point of the domain of a mapping, this domain frequently being an interval on the real line, and the range of the domain being a subset of Euclidean space of several dimensions or even of Hilbert space —9 June 1958 If that is what a parameter is, it is hard to disagree with this comment: • Parameter is a mathematical term with a precise meaning which, it is safe to say, not one in ten of those who use it understands —Sir Bruce Fraser, in Gowers 1973 But by 1973 parameter was, in fact, much more than a mathematical term with a precise meaning. The spread of usage had begun much earlier, but unlike later usage spread, the earlier was done chiefly by people working in technical fields: • In polyatomic molecules the nuclear configuration is described by several parameters, and variation of two parameters is sufficient to establish degeneracy —Francis Owen Rice & Edward Teller, The Structure of Matter, 1949 • The parameters (a 3% price change, and 10% growth change) were intentionally selected so that the growth effect on working capital retention would offset the price effect —Felix Kaufman & Alan Glea-son, Accounting Rev., October 1953 • The general picture of the carbon skeleton was thus provisionally defined by the three parameters mentioned above (aromaticity, ring condensation index and aromatic area) —P. H. Hermans, translation of D. W. Van Krevelen & J. Schuyer, Coal Science, 1957 • The satellite has light sensitive elements which alter the radio frequencies of the signals and the correlation between their durations and intermissions as soon as the temperature or other parameters of the satellite change —Science, 18 Oct. 1957 • There has been a good deal of monitoring of circulatory and respiratory parameters of native high-landers —Nature, 9 Aug. 1969 Even the spread to more general use was prefigured: • ... pondering the fact that the whole parameter of personal success bulks very small indeed in a world which is earnestly trying to find out whether the human race must necessarily destroy itself —John G. Jenkins, Science, 11 Jan. 1946 • ... the space-fiction cosmos of fantasy, with ... its invisibility, immortality and freedom from all other limiting parameters —Jonathan Norton Leonard, Flight into Space, 1953 If James Reston's list was the distant early warning of parameter's creeping into more general use, usage writers were not quick to respond. No commentator seems to have noticed the term until the 1970s. If we take as the earliest of these Fraser in Gowers 1973, Newman 1974, and Nickles 1974, we will see that all three subscribe to the theory that parameter is a misused mathematical term, which, as noted earlier, is not an adequate description. Fraser and Nickles both put forward the notion that parameter is frequently used where perimeter is meant. Such confusion may occur in speech, but it is an odd observation to make of edited prose, for perimeter (before 1973) was quite rare in extended use, and whereas parameter in the criticized use is usually plural, perimeter m figurative use (before 1973) was usually singular. (The possible effect of parameter-^ oid-ance on the figurative use of perimeter is discussed at perimeter.) The use of parameter most likely to attract comment about misuse for perimeter is that in which it is used in the plural in the sense of "limits." Note that in the first two examples below parameters clearly means "limits," but perimeter or perimeters could not be used; in the second two you could force perimeters in, but other words such as bounds or range or confines would work as well or better. • In the event that temperature levels exceed parameters, the system will warn the operator —Datamation, February 1976 • ... [it] is clearly within the parameters of Yariv's simple formula that Mr. Kissinger would seek to concoct his own equation for bringing Israel and the P.L.O. together —Edward R. F. Sheehan, N.Y. Times Mag., 8 Dec. 1974 • The Teachings of Don Juan and Fire on the Moon both fall within the parameters of science fiction as an attitude —Michael Baron, Real Paper, 3 Dec. 1975 • Eno's eccentric music doesn't stray beyond rock's accustomed borders so much as it innovates within those parameters —Charley Walters, Rolling Stone, 6 May 1976 You may also notice that things tend to be within parameters. This was not the idiom with perimeter(s) before the middle 1970s. By the time that most of the usage commentators were coming down hard on parameter, the computer had established itself in the powerful position it now holds, where it can meddle with the lives of every one of us. With the computer came parameter, stronger than ever. It is unlikely to be dislodged until a swankier term comes along. Just look at the publications, largely general in nature, where it is entrenched: • With these formulas in place, Grycz can change any parameter (book length, typesetting costs, royalty) and project the net impact on all costs automatically —Robyn Shotwell, Publishers Weekly, 5 Feb. 1982 • But a true novel is an extended piece of fiction: Length is clearly one of its parameters —Anthony Burgess, N.Y. Times Book Rev., 5 Feb. 1984 • For the technically oriented, this approach, among other parameters, involves careful consideration of the distance from the woofer to reflective surfaces — Henry Hunt, Houston Post, 26 Aug. 1984 • ... the infinite fantasies of the imagination, the divine and the wretched parameters of the human condition —Leo Rosten, Harper's, July 1972 • ... the ... cliché expert, Dr. Arbuthnot, revealed the parameters of the new Presidentialese to the official translators —William Safire, N.Y. Times, 18 Nov. 1976 • At the beginning of the planning process that generated the current options, the parameters were established not by the requirements of defending the nation but the requirements of reaching a strategic arms agreement —Wall Street Jour., 31 Aug. 1981 • ... exploring the possibilities of sounds in space, revealing how one can transubstantiate one musical parameter into another —Jonathan Cott, American Poetry Rev., vol. 3, no. 5, 1974 • ... the airlines compete vigorously in every other parameter of service including schedule frequency —Anthony Lewis, N.Y. Times, 8 Nov. 1976 • The two basic parameters of the industry—production index and price index—also point up the flat state of the West German chemical economy —Der-mot O'Sullivan, Chemical & Engineering News, 22 Feb. 1982 The adverse criticism of parameter took the wrong direction from the start, based as it was on outdated dictionary definitions ("a term in mathematics") and the assumption that perimeter must have been intended. More telling criticism, perhaps, would have been to point out that parameter was unnecessarily displacing such words as factor or criterion. But it is too late now. You need not use the word if you dislike it, naturally, but you will probably not be able to avoid seeing it, often used in ways that are less than illuminating: • Calm, powerful prose explores the parameters of reason and emotion, of growing up and growing old and how these mesh into a continuum of a life lived — N.Y. Times Book Rev., 14 Nov. 1976 |
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