| 词组 | data, datum |
| 释义 | data, datum 1. The word data is a queer fish. It is an English word formed from a Latin plural; however, it leads a life of its own quite independent of its Latin ancestor and equally independent of the English word datum, of which it is supposed to be the plural. Ordinary plurals—that is, the plurals of count nouns, like toes, women, or criteria—can be modified by cardinal numbers; that is, we can say five toes, or five women, or five criteria. But data is not used with a cardinal number; no one, it seems, can tell you how many data. Datum, incidentally, is a count noun; in one of its senses it has a plural datums, which is used with a cardinal number: • ... in place of a single reference system today we have about 80 more or less independently derived reference systems or datums —Homer E. Newell & Leonard Jaffe, Science, 7 July 1967 In its current use, data occurs in two constructions: as a plural noun (like earnings) taking a plural verb and certain plural modifiers (such as these, many, a few of) but not cardinal numbers, and serving as a referent for plural pronouns (such as they, them); and as an abstract mass noun (like information), taking a singular verb and singular modifiers (such as this, much, little), and being referred to by a singular pronoun (it). Both of these constructions are standard. The plural construction is much the more common, since evidence (which we shall see) suggests that the plural construction is mandated as house style by several publishers. Evans 1957 points out that usage differs in different sciences, although the passage of time has undoubtedly invalidated some of his specific observations. Data was not a common word until the 20th century. There are only scattered examples from the 17th and 18th centuries; in the mid- 19th century it and datum began to appear with some frequency in philosophical works. Not until the end of the 19th century did its usual modern sense—facts and figures—become established. The earliest attestation for mass noun use with a singular verb is dated 1902; it is American. The singular construction must have soon become fairly common, for it is recognized and corrected in Utter 1916 and Mac-Cracken & Sandison 1917. Merriam-Webster editors apparently did not begin to gather evidence until the 1920s; what they collected showed both the singular and plural constructions to be in vigorous use. The struggle of the Latinists against the singular mass noun use was equally vigorous; we have numerous citations from handbooks of the 1920s reprehending the use. One indeed has to struggle for correctness: • Although it sounds awkward to use the plural verb with data, yet it is correct to do so —Whipple 1924 The differentiation of data and datum was noticed at a fairly early date: • ... in ordinary use, "data" is not the mere plural of "datum." The two words possess quite different connotations. "Datum" appears to be almost exclusively used for a primary level in surveying while "data" connotes information or facts. Hence "data" as the plural of "datum" is a syntactical plural while "data" in the sense of facts is a collective which is preferably treated as a singular —Science, 1 July 1927 But insights such as those of the Science editor only slowly reached the citadels of usage pronouncement. And by about the middle of the 20th century, when usage writers began to recognize the mass singular use as established and standard (it was recognized without stigma in Webster's Second), more editors appear to have become convinced that only the plural construction was correct. So it happens that at present we have the anomaly of a majority of usage writers recognizing or approving the mass noun singular construction while a majority of the citations collected here are in the plural. That the preference for the plural is editorially inspired is indicated by such examples as these: • ... much of the data are still tentative —James Q. Wilson, IV. Y. Times, 6 Oct. 1974 (the singular modifier much with plural verb shows that some copy editor routinely corrected the verb without thinking) • There is no great amount of special data that begin to move upward many months before the economy as a whole —Leonard H. Lempert, Christian Science Monitor, 18 Sept. 1980 (the verb after data has been made plural even though the actual subject is amount) • ... investing in their own computer systems to interpret the raw digital data that are transmitted by the satellite. By massaging the data themselves, rather than buying it from the government —Business Week, 23 Aug. 1982 (the editor failed to notice it in the second sentence) In none of the above examples is it likely that the author used anything but the mass noun singular construction; a later editorial hand is clearly evident. In addition, the singular construction is sometimes decorated with a supercilious [sic]: • ... "there is [sic] no scientific data which conclusively demonstrates [sic] —Chief Justice Warren Burger, quoted by John Leonard, TV. Y. Times Book Rev., 8 July 1973 To summarize, data has never been the plural of a count noun in English. It is used in two constructions— plural, with plural apparatus, and singular, as a mass noun, with singular apparatus. Both constructions are fully standard at any level of formality. The plural construction is more common. If you are an editor for a publisher whose house style insists on the plural construction only, take care to be consistent (such care is advised by Evans 1957, Bernstein 1971, 1977, Macmillan 1982, and Einstein 1985, among others). 2.Datum. There is a common misapprehension among usage writers that datum is rarely used. While it is not nearly so frequently used as data, it is far from being a rare word. It is well attested both as a surveying term (as mentioned above in the 1927 Science quotation) and as a term in other disciplines—philosophy, mathematics, and the social sciences, among others—and in criticism. All citations up until about the middle 1960s occur in decidedly learned media. There have been more occurrences of datum in popular sources since then. Perhaps the insistence of many editors that data is a plural has accelerated the tendency for datum to be used as a singular of data: • Very soon I expect to be 52, a datum I do not expect will rouse the statisticians —William F. Buckley, Jr., Pueblo Star-Jour., 5 Oct. 1977 • Gun metal chills fingers far faster than, does a wooden pencil—the first datum of the day —Ronald Jager, Blair & Ketchum's Country Jour., November 1980 In fact, it looks like datum is beginning to be simply a fancy substitute for fact: • I'd estimate the median age of Manhattan Market's clientele to be well on the sunny side of thirty-five. Armed with this demographic datum, one may suspect ... —Jay Jacobs, Gourmet, September 1981 For other foreign plurals, see Latin plurals. |
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