Another one bites the dust?

[Laurence Horn]

At 7:15 AM -0700 9/12/07, James Smith wrote:
>Data - datum: who ever says "a datum"; rather, "a
>piece of data" or even "a piece of information".
>Commonly "This data...", sometimes "these data...",
>almost never "this datum...".  The only case I am
>familiar with where 'datum' is used regularly is in
>reference to elevations: "What is the datum for this
>map?", i.e., what is the base or reference elevation.

If you hang out around linguists, you'll hear "datum" used in this
way not infrequently.  I won't go so far as to say all the time.
(It's not used in contexts where "a piece of information" could be
substituted; for example, a particular lexical item with an
associated meaning or use, or a sentence that turns out to be
ungrammatical or grammatical or to have a given interpretation
because of some hypothesis being advanced by the author, is a datum
but not a piece of information.)

LH

>
>--- "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at UMR.EDU> wrote:
>
>>  I've often heard "a phenomena" and "a criteria,"
>>  and last night on the news someone spoke of "a
>>  paparazzi." We deal here with a tendency (not a law,
>>  though, of course) to shift the plural to the
>>  singular. I've noticed many more examples over the
>>  years, but they don't come to mind at the moment.
>>  Maybe it's time to compile them.
>>
>>  Gerald Cohen
>>
>>  > ----------
>>  > From:         American Dialect Society on behalf
>>  of Benjamin Barrett
>>  > Reply To:     American Dialect Society
>>  > Sent:         Wednesday, September 5, 2007 11:36
>>  PM
>>  > To:   ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>>  > Subject:           Re: Another one bites the dust?
>>  >
>>  > My chiropractor says that as well. My real estate
>>  agent says "an
>>  > addenda". I know that my real estate agent knows
>>  the difference; surely
>>  > my chiropractor does as well. BB
>>  >
>>  > Wilson Gray wrote:
>>  > > Heard on CSI:
>>  > >
>>  > > [Holding up a bone]: "Looks like a human
>>  _vertebrae_."
>>  > >
>>  >
>>  >
>>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>>  > The American Dialect Society -
>>  http://www.americandialect.org
>>  >
>>  >
>>
>>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>>  The American Dialect Society -
>>  http://www.americandialect.org
>>
>
>
>James D. SMITH                 |If history teaches anything
>South SLC, UT                  |it is that we will be sued
>jsmithjamessmith at yahoo.com     |whether we act quickly and decisively
>                                |or slowly and cautiously.
>
>
>
>____________________________________________________________________________________
>Tonight's top picks. What will you watch tonight? Preview the
>hottest shows on Yahoo! TV.
>http://tv.yahoo.com/
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org