Received: from ELI.CS.YALE.EDU by NEBULA.SYSTEMSZ.CS.YALE.EDU via SMTP; Mon, 7 Feb 1994 17:55:42 -0500 Received: from YALEVM.YCC.YALE.EDU by eli.CS.YALE.EDU via SMTP; Mon, 7 Feb 1994 17:55:37 -0500 Message-Id: <199402072255.AA00841@eli.CS.YALE.EDU> Received: from CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU by YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R2) with BSMTP id 3085; Mon, 07 Feb 94 17:52:49 EST Received: from CUVMB.COLUMBIA.EDU by CUVMB.CC.COLUMBIA.EDU (Mailer R2.07) with BSMTP id 6082; Mon, 07 Feb 94 17:54:34 EDT Date: Mon, 7 Feb 1994 14:47:30 PST Reply-To: Mark A Biggar Sender: Lojban list From: Mark A Biggar Subject: Re: English usage To: Erik Rauch Status: RO X-Status: X-From-Space-Date: Mon Feb 7 06:47:30 1994 X-From-Space-Address: @YaleVM.YCC.YALE.EDU:LOJBAN@CUVMB.BITNET >Hi all >Lojbab writes: >> My data is based on 75315 words of Lojban text (367K) compared to Cowan's >Am I one of the last of a vanishing breed that still believes that data' is >a plural word, or has usage overtaken (as in so many other cases). If that >is the case when can we expect to see 'datas', 'medias' and so on? >Yes I know I am nitpicking, it comes from have a series of pedants as >English teachers during my formative years. If you want to be pedantic then "data" is the plural and "datum" is the singular. But, there is a lot of common usage of the word "data" that treats it like a mass noun like "water". Notice that people tend to say "a piece of data" or "a record of data" and "The data is ..." not "The data are ...". As more and more poeple get into information processing I think that this trend will continue. -- Mark Biggar mab@wdl.loral.com