5 ms·

Not to mention grammatically incorrect ones :/

skrebbel 5y ago
I think it's correct, in the same way that you can say "Rolling Stones is a great band". It's about the tech called "Hopfield Networks", not about any particular number of networks that are all you need.
- caddemon 5y ago
  Not doubting what is officially grammatically correct, but that still sounds really weird to me. Like with sports teams I would only ever say "The Patriots are a good team" or "New England is a good team". Not "The Patriots is a good team". In any event, the authors definitely chose that title as a callback to the well known paper "Attention is all you need", which introduced Transformers. So that probably influenced their decision to use "is" instead of "are".
  - robotresearcher 5y ago
    Consider ‘My team is a good team’ vs. ‘My team are a good team’. I bet ‘is’ sounds better to you in this context, though ‘my team’ and ‘The Patriots’ are similar noun phrases that could refer to exactly the same thing. The difference is that Patriots is a plural. Replace it with Manchester United and ‘is’ sounds good again.
    - caddemon 5y ago
      Yeah it's definitely caused by the team name being plural, or at least sounding plural - I've never heard anyone say "The Red Sox is good" either. Regardless of what is technically grammatically correct I think real life usage has pretty much settled on that convention, at least in the US.
      - drdeca 5y ago
        Something odd : While "The Red Sox are John's favorite team." seems more natural then "The Red Sox is John's favorite team.", phrasing it in the opposite order, "John's favorite team is the Red Sox." seems more natural then "John's favorite team are the Red Sox." . This seems like a strange discrepancy. Why is this the case? Maybe it is because "favorite team" is clearly singular, and is closer in the sentence to the "is"/"are" then the plural indicating sound in "Red Sox". Or maybe it is just whichever comes first which determines how the "to be" is conjugated? Hm, but what if instead of connecting a noun phrase (determiner phrase?) like "The Red Sox" to another noun phrase (determiner phrase) "John's favorite team", we instead connect it to an adjective? "The Red Sox are singular.", "The Red Sox is singular.", "Singular is The Red Sox." "Singular are The Red Sox." . Well, the "[Adjective] is [noun]" is kind of an unusual thing to say unless one is trying to sound like one is quoting poetry or yoda or something, but to the degree that either of them sound ok, I think "Singular are The Red Sox." sounds better than "Singular is The Red Sox." . Though, in this case, there doesn't seem to be anything grammatically suggested by the adjective that the thing be in the singular case (maybe I shouldn't have used "singular" as the adjective..) . Hm, what if instead of "John's favorite team [is/are] the Red Sox." , we instead look at "John's favorite [is/are] the Red Sox." ? In this case, it seems, less clear which is more natural? They seem about the same to me (but that might just be me, idk.) . Anyway : Weird!
        DavidSJ 5y ago
        This is language dependent. In English: It's only five minutes to the bus stop. In German: Es sind nur fünf Minuten zur Bushaltestelle. (It are only five minutes to the bus stop.) I think it's a question of whether the verb is supposed to agree with the subject or the complement.
        detaro 5y ago
        > phrasing it in the opposite order, "John's favorite team is the Red Sox." seems more natural then "John's favorite team are the Red Sox. interesting. to my (non-native) ears, the second sounds more natural. Wonder how common preference for each of those is.

I think it's correct, in the same way that you can say "Rolling Stones is a great band". It's about the tech called "Hopfield Networks", not about any particular number of networks that are all you need.

caddemon 5y ago
Not doubting what is officially grammatically correct, but that still sounds really weird to me. Like with sports teams I would only ever say "The Patriots are a good team" or "New England is a good team". Not "The Patriots is a good team". In any event, the authors definitely chose that title as a callback to the well known paper "Attention is all you need", which introduced Transformers. So that probably influenced their decision to use "is" instead of "are".
- robotresearcher 5y ago
  Consider ‘My team is a good team’ vs. ‘My team are a good team’. I bet ‘is’ sounds better to you in this context, though ‘my team’ and ‘The Patriots’ are similar noun phrases that could refer to exactly the same thing. The difference is that Patriots is a plural. Replace it with Manchester United and ‘is’ sounds good again.
  - caddemon 5y ago
    Yeah it's definitely caused by the team name being plural, or at least sounding plural - I've never heard anyone say "The Red Sox is good" either. Regardless of what is technically grammatically correct I think real life usage has pretty much settled on that convention, at least in the US.
    - drdeca 5y ago
      Something odd : While "The Red Sox are John's favorite team." seems more natural then "The Red Sox is John's favorite team.", phrasing it in the opposite order, "John's favorite team is the Red Sox." seems more natural then "John's favorite team are the Red Sox." . This seems like a strange discrepancy. Why is this the case? Maybe it is because "favorite team" is clearly singular, and is closer in the sentence to the "is"/"are" then the plural indicating sound in "Red Sox". Or maybe it is just whichever comes first which determines how the "to be" is conjugated? Hm, but what if instead of connecting a noun phrase (determiner phrase?) like "The Red Sox" to another noun phrase (determiner phrase) "John's favorite team", we instead connect it to an adjective? "The Red Sox are singular.", "The Red Sox is singular.", "Singular is The Red Sox." "Singular are The Red Sox." . Well, the "[Adjective] is [noun]" is kind of an unusual thing to say unless one is trying to sound like one is quoting poetry or yoda or something, but to the degree that either of them sound ok, I think "Singular are The Red Sox." sounds better than "Singular is The Red Sox." . Though, in this case, there doesn't seem to be anything grammatically suggested by the adjective that the thing be in the singular case (maybe I shouldn't have used "singular" as the adjective..) . Hm, what if instead of "John's favorite team [is/are] the Red Sox." , we instead look at "John's favorite [is/are] the Red Sox." ? In this case, it seems, less clear which is more natural? They seem about the same to me (but that might just be me, idk.) . Anyway : Weird!
      - DavidSJ 5y ago
        This is language dependent. In English: It's only five minutes to the bus stop. In German: Es sind nur fünf Minuten zur Bushaltestelle. (It are only five minutes to the bus stop.) I think it's a question of whether the verb is supposed to agree with the subject or the complement.
      - detaro 5y ago
        > phrasing it in the opposite order, "John's favorite team is the Red Sox." seems more natural then "John's favorite team are the Red Sox. interesting. to my (non-native) ears, the second sounds more natural. Wonder how common preference for each of those is.