From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!floyd!rjs
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Title: Using data as a singular noun
Article-I.D.: floyd.1217
Posted: Fri Feb 25 11:30:32 1983
Received: Sat Feb 26 02:40:09 1983

I was recently informed that a phrase I used in a document was incorrect.
I suspect this is true, but I'm not sure about the fix and am therefore
soliciting opinions from all you grammarians out there.

The phrase I used was "... gathering data as it becomes available from ...".
This sounds ok to me, but so do a lot of other grammatically incorrect
phrases.  The problem is that "data" is plural (of "datum"), so it was
suggested that the phrase should read "... gathering data as they become
available from ...".  But this doesn't really sound like what I wanted
to say, although it may well be.  Consider the following similar phrases:

	"... gathering sheep as they become available from ..."
	"... gathering wheat as it becomes available from ..."
	"... gathering money as it becomes available from ..."

(I'm using examples because I don't know the proper terminology for
this stuff).  I believe the first and third phrases are correct and
suspect the second is also.  Although "wheat" and "money" are plural,
it's hard to pin down a singular form for them.  Can "data" be
legitimately used in this form?  "Money" is apparently a "mass noun",
which is not quite singular or plural.  Is there a corresponding word
that can be used similarly for "data"?  Is "data" a "mass noun"?
"Look at all that data." sounds better than "Look at all those data.".

Looking forward to your opinions.

	Robert Snyder
	floyd!rjs