Because your mind is on Christmas already?
Got something nice to look forward to?
Hopefully making it to my 70th Birthday in April.
Dear FD - Data is plural...
- Thread starter manicguitarist
- Start date
Hopefully making it to my 70th Birthday in April.
I guess the difference in the plurality of Data is how you pronounce it:
Dah-ta: plural.
Day-ta: singular.
Besides, everyone in the real world knows grammatical teachings go STRIGHT out the window .2 seconds after leaving the artificial world of formal schooling. Language is about plasticity. Its about conveying information from one person to another through changing variables and environments. It changes too over time. (IKR?!)
Those that hold onto it quite so tightly have, well, data issues.
Dah-ta: plural.
Day-ta: singular.
Besides, everyone in the real world knows grammatical teachings go STRIGHT out the window .2 seconds after leaving the artificial world of formal schooling. Language is about plasticity. Its about conveying information from one person to another through changing variables and environments. It changes too over time. (IKR?!)
Those that hold onto it quite so tightly have, well, data issues.
No, the singular form is "Datum" and pronunciation is a locale thing
Also, must disagree on your comment about "everyone in the real world knows grammatical teachings go STRIGHT[sic] out the window"... that's not the case for all of us, and when I review CVs when we're hiring - bad spelling/grammar means you don't get an interview. Period. Why? If there's one document you want to pay attention to, it's your CV. On an internet forum? Not so much - but I do try
As opposed to "day-da"Nah, that's just how Aussies/Kiwis (incorrectly) pronounce it.
Yet it has to be a balance. Language is nothing if not a standard or protocol for communication.
If I decide to say "Yes" for the negative and "No" for the affirmative, then no that's perfectly fine. But it would inevitably lead to more confusion and less efficient and effective language use, yes doubt.
In a way, language is just a microcosm of greater human society; where there's the constant struggle of society needing to impose standards of behaviour on individuals, vs the individual's struggle to demur, and differ.
I would have thought it to be "doi-Ta"
And to flip the contept, "propah" English in "mutha" England is rarely properly spoken. If I was giving an interview to a job applicant, and the lazy seeming lout could not be bothered to properly pronounce... nor even be bothered to finish- his spoken words, that would have far more weight for me than typos (that the mdern wrld cam read ritr through anyway) [<-- see? you just did- probably didn't even skip a beat]
And to flip the contept, "propah" English in "mutha" England is rarely properly spoken. If I was giving an interview to a job applicant, and the lazy seeming lout could not be bothered to properly pronounce... nor even be bothered to finish- his spoken words, that would have far more weight for me than typos (that the mdern wrld cam read ritr through anyway) [<-- see? you just did- probably didn't even skip a beat]
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Oh I agree that would have more weight.
My point is, your CV is your foot in the door. It's the first thing a potential employer will be looking at. It's your advert. And if you can't get that right, then there's a bigger issue.
Fun fact, last year I had one where on the front sheet it said "Desired Position: Unemployed". That gave me a good chuckle.
Fly safe, CMDR o7
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If I were!
I'd best stop following this thread; it's like a red rag to a bull
Glorious, isn't it?
To be honest, any country that sticks "cowabunga" into it's dictionary loses any and all rights to dictate language control.
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More than that, if you cut the words in half, along the horizontal, it's possible to read them too. While mixed up.
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I rembeemr rdnaeig an arlctie ages ago taht we can wrok an auwfl lot of sfutf out and taht even the oedrr of lettres in a word do not mteatr as lnog as the fisrt and last oens are crrecot. I even worte a wee aptilaiocpn that mseesd arunod wtih the order, jsut for a lhaug.
More than that, if you cut the words in half, along the horizontal, it's possible to read them too. While mixed up.
If I were!
I'd best stop following this thread; it's like a red rag to a bull
Arrrgh! I can't rep you any more!
BW
Modern English leads to such quaint terms as:
Collateral Damage
Enhanced interrogations
and the old Chestnut-Military Advisers.
Shakespeare's idea 'a rose by any other name', although true, the misuse of language by those that use it to hide behind crimes shows why language can be a great tool for the nefarious...and why having a large vocabulary allows many to see through the smoke.
...on pronuciation
I had a professor in College that basically stated, "I do not care HOW you say it, but it damned well better be spelled correctly.'
In the sciences, this is the rule. I do not care if you say 'aluminum' or 'aluminium', it is best to use the chemical symbol rather than the word...clarity is everything.
If you want to hear an interesting discussion, listen to a person from the UK, Germany, and the US have a discussion on anatomy. 'Duodenum' has never been so funny! An English Major would get so lost in the 'mispronunciation' of so many words!
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And..then it happened. <sheepishly hangs head>
I had a professor in College that basically stated, "I do not care HOW you say it, but it damned well better be spelled correctly.'
In the sciences, this is the rule. I do not care if you say 'aluminum' or 'aluminium', it is best to use the chemical symbol rather than the word...clarity is everything.
If you want to hear an interesting discussion, listen to a person from the UK, Germany, and the US have a discussion on anatomy. 'Duodenum' has never been so funny! An English Major would get so lost in the 'mispronunciation' of so many words!
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And..then it happened. <sheepishly hangs head>
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'Twas brillig and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
And then they mounted the vorpal blade on a huge hardpoint on a FDL and did cry the forumites "Nerf!".
Hmmm....maybe Lewis Carrol was onto something there! Given proper position any kind of gibberish can make some level of sense.
Meanwhile, I'm trying to work out whether Lewis Carroll invented the term "gimbal".
This thread has given me a good laugh. Always a good thing. The data has been worth dissecting.
Thank you all who have contributed
Thank you all who have contributed
If I were!
I'd best stop following this thread; it's like a red rag to a bull
Arrgh! But you're only one!
Seriously - English is a simple language looking at the ruleset. Not much to learn. That's what I kept telling those I taught. Then they would come up with these little things and I told them to shut up, have some respect and learn harder.