Mail Archives: djgpp/1996/12/20/23:50:45
Ruiter de M <mdruiter AT cs DOT vu DOT nl> wrote in article
<59e5b8$k26 AT star DOT cs DOT vu DOT nl>...
> [earlier discussion about plura;ity of "data"]
> Yes. And all of this is very off-topic. Sorry for joining the discussion
here.
From The Dictionary of Modern English Usage by H.W. Fowler (you can guess
that I'm not a native English speaker, why else would anyone keep such a
dictionary):
\bold{data} is a latin plural (\italics{The d. are}, not \italics{is,
insufficient.} / \italics{What are the d.?} / \italics{We have no d.}); the
singular, relatively rare, is \italics{datum}; \italics{one of the data} is
commoner than \italics{a datum}; but \italics{datum-line}, is used for a
line taken as a basis. Latin plurals sometimes become singular English
words (e.g. \italics{agenda, stanima}) and \italics{data} is often so
treated in the U.S.; in Britain this is still considered a solecism, though
it may occationally appear.
--
Weiqi Gao
weiqigao AT crl DOT com
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