On Fri, 03 Jan 2014 19:28:10 +0100, Richard Hipp <d...@sqlite.org> wrote:
On Fri, Jan 3, 2014 at 1:22 PM, Ron Wilson <ronw.m...@gmail.com> wrote:
BTW, the singular of "data" is "datum".
It is in Latin. In English "data" is a mass noun or an "uncountable
noun". Like "sand" or "information" or "water", it has no plural form
and
always takes a singular verb.
We know that "data" cannot be plural in English because in English,
compound nouns never take the plural form. And yet "data" is frequently
used in compound nouns: "data center", "data analysis", "data
processing",
"data mining", etc. Hence, "data" cannot be a plural noun.
as a physicist I've never seen `data' used in its singluar form and I'm
sure you are not completely (although mostly) right here. but
as a non-native speaker I rather resort to the "Oxford Dictionary of
English" which says (citing it verbatim (modulo typos...)):
"Usage: In Latin 'data' is the plural of 'datum' and, historically and in
specialized scientific fields it is also
treated as a plural in English, taking a plural verb, as in 'the data were
collected and classified'. In modern non-scientific
use, however, despite the complaints of traditionalists, it is often not
treated as a plural. Instead, it is treated as a mass
noun, similar to a word like `information' which cannot normally have a
plural and which
takes a singular verb. Sentences such as 'data was (as well as 'data
were') collected over a
number of years' are now widely accepted in standard English".
so your statement that it categorically cannot be used in its plural form
sure is wrong. it rather seems it's the other way round: it should
be used as a plural (which it is) but English usage has developed in a way
that using it as a mass noun is acceptable as well.
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