I agree with much of what Bill says, but I must also correct a serious error I made. Where I wrote Knuth in my earlier post I shold have written [Willard van Orman] Quine. Knuth is an eminent mathematician and computer scientist. He is not a logician, philosopher, or linguist.
I think the major difference between my views and Bill's is that mine are descriptive and his are prescriptive. I was trying to describe the world as I see it, and he was describing the way he would like it to be. I have now said all that I think I can usefully say about this topic. On 7/30/12, Bill Fairchild <bfairch...@rocketsoftware.com> wrote: > -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU] On > Behalf Of John Gilmore > Sent: Monday, July 30, 2012 2:30 PM > To: IBM-MAIN@LISTSERV.UA.EDU > Subject: Re: Friday: What you've been waiting for! Build an 80 column > punched card reader! > >> Knuth recounts an anecdote, in his book 'Quiddities', of listening to >> learn whether a speaker at a scientific meeting would use the word 'data' >> in the singular or the plural. Its use in the singular was disqualifying. >> Knuth listened no more. > >>Now it is certainly possible to disagree with Knuth, to judge that usage >> amply justifies, even sanctifies, the use of 'data' in the singular. >> Knuth was nevertheless a towering figure, one of the greatest logicians, >> philosophers, and, yes, linguists of the 20th century; and his judgments >> were consequential. > >>There were and are circumstances in which ignoring the judgments of > such figures would be foolhardy. It is possible to stigmatize them > as élitist, but doing so does not make them inconsequential. > > I do know that "data" is the nominative and accusative plural form of the > singular Latin noun "datum", and should require a plural form of any > associated verb IN CORRECT LATIN, but I have heard "data is" my whole life > when listening to conversational English (not Latin), find "data are" to > sound strange, and have learned to accept both forms in other people's > speech. I have also learned to ignore, as horrifying as it is to my ears, > the British use of a plural verb with a singular subject, such as "Her > Majesty's Government are inclined to..." or "the Australian swimming team > are slightly ahead in the Olympic finals." I can understand their > perfectionistic concern for their language, but I cannot understand their > bloody inconsistency when they require "data are" and also "government are." > Perhaps it all boils down to whether one feels that the subject (data, > government, team, etc.) is singular or plural. I can comfortably imagine > that "data" could be singular if one is thinking of all the data as a whole > data set rather than all the millions of little individual datums. My > concept of "water" subsumes the entire Atlantic Ocean as well as a single > molecule of H2O. When I hear or read a subject-verb inconsistency, I > experience a brief blip in the continuously parsing and proofreading > microcircuity in my brain, I remember where the speaker or writer learned > his English, and I move on in my mind to reconnect with the topic being > discussed. > > If the eminent American (and not British) Knuth had continued listening > after disqualifying a speaker, he might have learned a lot more about > everything, including modesty and patience. Just as you recommended that > one should learn when to use and when not to use one's own native dialect, I > would suggest that one should also know when to require and when not to > require a speaker to speak perfectly according to one's own parochial set of > perceived grammar rules. There were and are circumstances in which ignoring > the rest of a speech at a scientific meeting, after one's sense of > grammatically required constructs is first outraged, might not be wise or > inconsequential. I can imagine someone's shouting "Everybody get out! The > building are on fire!" in a scientific meeting and all the elitists remain > seated while the subliterate escape with their lives. > > Bill Fairchild > Programmer > Rocket Software > 408 Chamberlain Park Lane . Franklin, TN 37069-2526 . USA > t: +1.617.614.4503 . e: bfairch...@rocketsoftware.com . w: > www.rocketsoftware.com > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
