[Ads-l] "information" as a plural

Stanton McCandlish smccandlish at GMAIL.COM
Sun Oct 3 15:48:27 UTC 2021


Weird. That one's kind of the opposite of the common trend, to turn "there
are" into "there's" even before clearly plural constructions ("There's 13
geese on my lawn.")


On Fri, Oct 1, 2021 at 7:05 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu> wrote:

> Just heard on the radio that “there are a chance of showers Monday
> night”.  Unlike “a whirlwind of”, this can’t even be read as a quantifier.
>
>
> > On Sep 29, 2021, at 7:05 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at GMAIL.COM>
> wrote:
> >
> > Chloe Melas, entertainment reporter, CNN, just now:
> >
> > "There have been a whirlwind of petitions filed since."
> >
> > I wonder alternatively if people are hypercorrecting the dreaded "There
> is."
> >
> > However, "petitions," not whirlwind, is salient.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Sat, Sep 25, 2021 at 4:41 PM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com
> >
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Quorum.com:
> >>
> >> "There are scarring on my lungs."
> >>
> >> Plural "lungs" is the noun that gets the most emphasis, vocally and
> >> topically.
> >>
> >> Though Swedish, the writer is fluent in English. He also writes, "while
> >> factors like age, obesity, and preexisting conditions do affect those
> >> chances of death or complications, your 'strong immune system' is
> actually
> >> not a factor of getting infected."  (OK, so he uses "of" instead of
> "in.")
> >>
> >> JL
> >>
> >> On Fri, Sep 24, 2021 at 5:08 PM Mark Mandel <markamandel at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>> I'm familiar with "the data is", which certainly isn't plural, but I'm
> >>> pretty sure I haven't encountered a plural "datas". So I think the
> >>> singular
> >>> "data" is really a mass noun, like "information" (in traditional
> usage),
> >>> "evidence", "music", "money", "progress", and many others.
> >>>
> >>> Mark Mandel
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Thu, Sep 23, 2021 at 1:13 PM Stanton McCandlish <
> smccandlish at gmail.com
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> Yes, I can see how the error happened, but it's still an error.
> >>>> Unless we're seeing an actual shift.  It wouldn't be the first time
> >>> there's
> >>>> been one in this sort of term.  E.g. "data", a plural, has become
> >>>> frequently used in the singular, while "datum" recedes into obscurity.
> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------
> >>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >> --
> >> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >>
> >
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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



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