[Ads-l] "information" as a plural

[Jonathan Lighter]

My freshmen were already using invariant "there's" almost invariably when I
started teaching in 1976.

But not equivalent "there are," which seems (at least) totally novel.

JL

On Sun, Oct 3, 2021 at 12:21 PM Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
wrote:

> > On Oct 3, 2021, at 11:48 AM, Stanton McCandlish <smccandlish at GMAIL.COM>
> wrote:
> >
> > 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.”)
>
> Right, but that’s invariant “there’s”, not to be conflated with singular
> “there is”:
>
> There’s 13 geese on the lawn, aren’t there?/*isn’t there?
>
> I think this use of invariant “there’s” regardless of number of the
> “pivot” noun has been around for some time—not sure how long.
> >
> >
> > 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
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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."

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