Re: English usage

[Mark A Biggar <mab@WDL.LORAL.COM>]

>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