Data

[cesium]

This is probably a stupid gripe, but is the use of "data" as a singular (e.g. "the data is incorrect") incorrect?

Somewhere I was told that it is always "the data are incorrect", but this doesn't always work, esp. when dealing with data on computers.

Is it _always_ "the data are" and "the datum is"?
Where did this incorrect usage come from?

 

[Zep]

Technically speaking, "data" is the plural of "datum".

So, "the data ARE incorrect".

However you try telling that to any IT tech who was trained after about 1960...

 

[Jeff Corey]

According to this, "data" could be an "abstract mass noun" and treated as if singular. .
http://209.161.33.50/dictionary/data
But I always treat them as plural.

 

[rjh01]

Can someone please explain why plurals are important in the English language and not have one word for one object like sheep? One sheep, many sheep. One child, many children.

 

[Jeff Corey]

It's Greek to me.
P.S., "children"?

 

[Complexity]

Sheepum

 

[NobbyNobbs]

But I always treat them as plural.

Of course you should treat "them" as plural. It refers to more than one person. Otherwise it would be "him" or "her".

 

[The_Iceman]

Data, cases, and variables

"Data," in almost all instances refers to a collection of individual "case" values, either numeric or categorical (text names). That collection of cases, (e.g., "Height") is correctly named, the "Variable"

There are of course instances when an individual case is of interest. To identify that case we refer to the case as the ith case of the (Name) Variable.

"Datum," is thus so infrequently used as to be of little interest, and certainly not worth wasting time over, in explanation of singular or plural usage.

 

[jimbob]

It's Greek to me.
P.S., "children"?

Germanic

Ox and oxen

 

[dlorde]

Even more annoying than the singularification of data, is the similar singularificizationalism of 'bacteria'.

"This deadly bacteria is..."
"A single bacteria can divide to produce..."

A good grounding in Latin and Greek, and a good thrashing twice a week would work wonders for journalistic standards.

OTOH no doubt there are some who'd pay for a good thrashing...

Come to think of it, "vertebra" seems to be in similar trouble, except that nobody seems to realise it's singluar.

"He damaged several vertebra..."

Almost as if some vestige of knowledge tells them that if it ends in 'a' it must be plural.

It drives my companion and I to distraction. She and me both hate it ;-)

 

[yairhol]

According to the IEEE: http://www.ieee.org/portal/cms_docs/pubs/transactions/TRANS-JOUR.DOC
The word “data” is plural, not singular...


Regards,
Yair