This site uses cookies. Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site, while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used. For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Cookie settings
give the other a hundred yards
wired
Dec 10, 2019 13:08
4 yrs ago
1 viewer *
English term

gradual argument

English Marketing Marketing
Hello everyone,

From the book AI in Marketing, Sales and Service by Peter Gentsch.

It goes without saying that the amount of data has increased immensely thanks to the Internet of things, mobiles and social media—yet this is rather a **gradual argument**. The decisive factor is that thanks to the possibilities of IT and the digitalisation of business processes, customer-oriented points of contact for both generating data and for systematically controlling communication have increased. Added to this is the high speed at which the corresponding data is collected, processed and used.

https://www.dictionary.com/browse/gradual

1 taking place, changing, moving, etc., by small degrees or little by little:
gradual improvement in health.

2 rising or descending at an even, moderate inclination:
a gradual slope.

What does "gradual argument" mean?
I don't think that one of the usual meanings of "gradual" applies here.

I asked this question on another forum but (after almost 24 hours) no answer so far.

https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/rather-a-gradual-arg...

Thank you.
Responses
3 only part of the story / stating the obvious
4 +2 Just make something up
5 "yet this is just the beginning of it"
4 this is more about an argument for gradual changes...
4 gradual process
4 specious argument/adducing/con/counterargument/last word/case /pro/determine
3 ambiguous/changing/indefinite

Discussion

Yvonne Gallagher Dec 11, 2019:
@Mikhail Good! That should be interesting
Mikhail Korolev (asker) Dec 11, 2019:
Yes, Yvonne, it's a good idea and I just posted this question in the German-English language pair.
Yvonne Gallagher Dec 11, 2019:
@ Mikhail why not open a Ger> En question and let the Germans (and German> English translators of course) argue it out there rather than in an En> En pair? It would be better to have a good translation since they seem to think the original translator got it wrong
Mikhail Korolev (asker) Dec 11, 2019:
Thank you, Steffen.
Steffen Walter Dec 11, 2019:
Same impression here, Björn ... ... and I've also had a look at the Google Books link. I believe this should be interpreted along the lines of "..., yet this argument is only (a minor/small) part of the story" or "..., yet this argument is only/just stating the obvious" (which would be in line with the beginning of the sentence, i.e. "It goes without saying that ...").

On a related note, I consider the standard of this English translation to be relatively poor.
Mikhail Korolev (asker) Dec 10, 2019:
Thank you very much, Björn.
Björn Vrooman Dec 10, 2019:
@Mikhail Please be careful. The author is German. Since the German version of this book came out in 2017, while the one you're translating was published in 2018, I have to assume the book was written in German and was then translated into English.

Yours would thus be a translation of a translation, so it might help to post further Qs about this book in the DE-EN forum. The German title is: "Künstliche Intelligenz für Sales, Marketing und Service: Mit AI und Bots zu einem Algorithmic Business." You can find it on GoogleBooks.

As for your Q, it does say "graduelles Argument." Not sure how good your German is: https://www.dwds.de/wb/graduell

To me, it seems more likely that this line of argument doesn't have much impact on the whole. If you take a look at the examples on the page above, "graduell" often means "the difference is minimal."

The paragraph that comes before the one you posted says that "large amounts of data" isn't something unique to this decade. In fact, big chunks of data had to be processed 20 years ago as well.

Therefore, people saying social media is the reason we need more storage space etc. are missing the point (=graduell). Phil may know.

Best wishes

Responses

20 hrs
Selected

only part of the story / stating the obvious

See discussion.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 20 hrs (2019-12-11 09:36:59 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

On second thought, I'd go for "stating/repeating the obvious", rather than "part of the story".

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 20 hrs (2019-12-11 09:37:45 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

On second thought, I'd go for the "stating/repeating the obvious" interpretation, rather than for "part of the story".

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 21 hrs (2019-12-11 10:25:29 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Or even "..., yet this argument adds only very little to what has been generally known for a long time".
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Many thanks to everyone. Thank you, Steffen."
32 mins

ambiguous/changing/indefinite

I believe that by "gradual" they mean something that is not limited, determined or definite.
Something went wrong...
+2
1 hr

Just make something up

"Gradual argument" makes no sense to me, and I don't think there's any definite answer to this question. The text is poorly written and edited, and the bit beginning "customer-oriented points of contact" is incomprehensible.

If I were translating this, I would just make something up. For example, you could say "this is only a part of the issue".
Peer comment(s):
agree satrans : Exactly, the text seems poorly drafted, also share your observation that "gradual argument" means that it only partly addresses the relevant issue (an "ancillary argument" perhaps?), while the "decisive" factor (argument) is something else.
2 hrs
Thanks. But I have no idea what "gradual argument" means.
agree B D Finch
1 day 35 mins
Something went wrong...
1 hr

this is more about an argument for gradual changes...

OR
this really explains how gradual changes took place...

The way I read it is that he is comparing the rate of change and reasons for the increase in the amount of data. So, to rephrase the lines a bit:

"...that the amount of data has increased immensely thanks to the Internet of things,...—yet this is rather a gradual argument." >>>>

It's true that the amount of data has increased immensely thanks to the Internet of things,[...] but this really happened in a gradual way.

"The decisive factor is that thanks to the possibilities of IT and [...] systematically controlling communication have increased." >>>>>

The main reason this ("immense increase") happened is because of the huge increase in "the possibilities of IT and the digitalisation [...] for systematically controlling communication...

"Added to this is the high speed at which the corresponding data is collected, processed and used." >>>>>

On top of this you can factor in (the increase in ) the speed at which the corresponding data is collected, processed and used.


So basically, the first changes mentioned (because of the internet of things etc.) can be seen to be more gradual when compared to the main reasons for the huge increase in the amount of data which are mentioned in the following sentences.
Something went wrong...
11 hrs

gradual process

the English is more than suspect but this looks like the idea

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 11 hrs (2019-12-11 00:47:45 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

I suspect that this has come from an attempt to render the idea from another language (maybe Russian?), so there we go...

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 11 hrs (2019-12-11 00:49:34 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

anyway, you decide as you have more info
Something went wrong...
13 hrs

"yet this is just the beginning of it"

by gradual he means ther arguments escalate. So the opening statement was just a very basic way of putting it. The coming statements would prove to be much greater.

You could even go as far as translating it to "just the tip of the iceberg".
Something went wrong...
1 day 1 hr

specious argument/adducing/con/counterargument/last word/case /pro/determine

A fact or statement used to support a proposition; a reason.
A fact or assertion offered as evidence that something is true...

Synonyms:
gradual:
in small stages ; antiphony ; antiphon ; gradatory ; step-by-step ; sloping ; gradational ; inclined ; easy ; gentle ; piecemeal ; slow ; stepwise ; graduated ; bit-by-bit ;
Antonyms:
sudden ; steep

Synonyms:
argument:
difference of opinion ; tilt ; dispute ; evidence ; contestation ; debate ; summary ; give-and-take ; discussion ; disceptation ; variable quantity ; sum-up ; literary argument ; controversy ; arguing ; contention ; variable ; difference ; disputation ; conflict ; word ; argumentation ; statement
Reference:

https://glosbe.com/en/en/gradual

https://glosbe.com/en/en/argument

Peer comment(s):
neutral Steffen Walter : How is this going to help the asker in his specific context? I strongly suspect that he wasn't looking for a mere dictionary answer.
3 hrs
neutral Björn Vrooman : Agree with Steffen; where's your explanation of what the words mean in this particular context?
19 hrs
Something went wrong...
Close search
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search