[PLUG-TALK] begging the question

Rich Shepard rshepard at appl-ecosys.com
Sun Oct 4 15:56:49 UTC 2009


On Sat, 3 Oct 2009, John Jason Jordan wrote:

> I was struck when, while taking a class on sociolinguistics, the professor
> informed us that data "are," and that we'd best use it in the plural in
> our work. This was the same professor I took Intro to Linguistics from,
> where he proclaimed in the very first class how evil prescriptivism is. It
> amused me greatly that linguistics professors eschew prescriptivism, and
> then turn around and prescribe to their students.

   I never thought of this in linguistic terms, but in terms of singular
versus plural. A single point (or fact), I was taught early on, is a 'datum'
and multiple points (observations, measurements, facts) are 'data.'
Similarly, we speak (and write) of a single 'person' and multiple 'people.'
Unfortunately (or fortunately if one makes his living as a semanticist),
such use is not universal. We refer to a single 'sheriff' but to multiple
'sheriffs' rather than 'sherifim.' Oh, well. I much prefer 'data are'
regardless of in what linguistic category that places me.

> When I was 12 years old I was informed by my language arts teacher that
> it was incorrect to say "people that." People are "who" and things are
> "that." Like most Americans, I had always used 'who' and 'that'
> interchangeably for people.

   Perhaps, again, due to my early education, I have always refered to people
(and corporations) as 'who' and things as 'that.' The forms with which I
have not yet come to terms (without losing any sleep over the issue) are
refering to 'something that' versus 'something which.' I guess that this is
a result of poor teaching in elementary schools in New York City in the
1950s.

> You cannot win with prescriptivists.

   Writing is only a competition for professional authors. Unfortunately,
most people write ambiguously, carelessly, and ineffectively. There is no
communication because the reader cannot discern what the writer was trying
to express. This problem is endemic.

Rich

-- 
Richard B. Shepard, Ph.D.               |  Integrity            Credibility
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc.        |            Innovation
<http://www.appl-ecosys.com>     Voice: 503-667-4517      Fax: 503-667-8863



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