Friday, December 31, 2004

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On the subject of language errors where resistance is futile...it seems we could almost be at that stage with "I could care less". I find it hard to surrender on this one, though, since it contains such a clear logical fallacy. I am about to the stage of surrender on "somewhat", as in "He is somewhat of a language snob". "Something" seems to have been nearly supplanted by "somewhat", for reasons that escape me. 12:01:09 PM    comment []

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Richard Jenkyns has written a splendid essay on the contemporary usage, and mis-usage of, English; and also the popularity of books on the same subject. There are many, many insights to cherish. In the whole article, there was only a single point I disagreed with (and even that, merely a particular example illustrating a very useful principle): In the case of manifest language errors, the rule should be simple: resist as long as you can, but once the battle is lost, surrender. It is still worth trying to keep "media" and "data" as plural words, but it would be silly to say, "Her stamina are remarkable." Since my undergraduate days, I have been following the wars over the plurality of "data". Most of the people doing the correcting seem to be in favor of data as plural. I tend to use data as singular, but I think both usages can be logically correct. The word "data" is typically a contraction for a meaning fully expressed by one of two phrases. Plural for individual elements of data (data points, in business jargon); The body of evidence. The former is clearly a plural usage, but the latter seems equally clearly a singular usage; one wouldn't say "The body of evidence are convincing". Moreover, it seems to me that the usage of the term data is more frequently occurring in the second sense. 12:01:06 PM    comment []