[Ads-l] "information" as a plural

[Jonathan Lighter]

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.
> > >
> >
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
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>


-- 
"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