Re: Off topic: Latin plurals

[Bill Troop billtroop@xxxxxxxx]

> "Data," ... moving toward singularity, and will
> probably be considered a collective in a few more years.
No doubt this is exactly what will happen. But Fowler 3, in the tradition
of Fowler Fowler, sometimes tries to defer the flow of corruption by
offering a compromise based on a sometimes useful distinction. Thus
(abbreviating Fowler 3 as drastically as I have abbreviated Patricia's
discussion) , '...in philosophical (sense-data) and general use, data is
usually considered as a plural.... In computing and allied disciplines, it
is treated as a singular noun....'