[PATCH] The word "data" is plural.
--- NEWS | 10 +++++----- Theory | 4 ++-- africa | 2 +- asia | 7 +++---- australasia | 2 +- europe | 2 +- newctime.3 | 2 +- northamerica | 2 +- southamerica | 2 +- tzfile.5 | 6 +++--- zic.8 | 2 +- 11 files changed, 20 insertions(+), 21 deletions(-) diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS index 4be8450..9765e56 100644 --- a/NEWS +++ b/NEWS @@ -427,7 +427,7 @@ Release 2014a - 2014-03-07 23:30:29 -0800 Microsoft has some support for tz database names. - CLDR data is available in both XML and JSON form. + CLDR data are available in both XML and JSON form. Mention Maggiolo's map of solar vs standard time. (Thanks to Arthur David Olson.) @@ -671,8 +671,8 @@ Release 2013e - 2013-09-19 23:50:04 -0700 some errors before 1947. Some zones have been turned into links, when they differ from - existing zones only in older data that was likely invented or that - differs only in LMT or transition from LMT. These changes affect + existing zones only in older data that were likely invented or that + differ only in LMT or transitions from LMT. These changes affect only time stamps before 1943. The affected zones are: Africa/Juba, America/Anguilla, America/Aruba, America/Dominica, America/Grenada, America/Guadeloupe, America/Marigot, @@ -2543,7 +2543,7 @@ Release 94h - 1994-12-10 12:51:14 -0500 data files. Think of this as "TZ Classic" - the software has been set up not to break if - universal time shows up in its input, and the data has been left as is so as + universal time shows up in its input, and the data have been left as is so as not to break existing implementations. @@ -2623,7 +2623,7 @@ Release 93f - 1993-10-15 12:27:46 -0400 Release 93e - 1993-09-05 21:21:44 -0400 - There's updated data for Israel, England, and Kwajalein; there's + There are updated data for Israel, England, and Kwajalein; there's also an update to "zdump" to cope with Kwajalein's 24-hour jump. Thanks to Paul Eggert and Peter Ilieve for the changes. diff --git a/Theory b/Theory index 2a3a911..15c695e 100644 --- a/Theory +++ b/Theory @@ -254,7 +254,7 @@ Errors in the tz database arise from many sources: the current single entry for France would need to split into dozens of entries, perhaps hundreds. - * Most of the pre-1970 data comes from unreliable sources, often + * Most of the pre-1970 data come from unreliable sources, often astrology books that lack citations and whose compilers evidently invented entries when the true facts were unknown, without reporting which entries were known and which were invented. @@ -283,7 +283,7 @@ Errors in the tz database arise from many sources: Caledonian railways. * The tz database does not record the earliest time for which a - zone's data is thereafter valid for every location in the region. + zone's data are thereafter valid for every location in the region. For example, Europe/London is valid for all locations in its region after GMT was made the standard time, but the date of standardization (1880-08-02) is not in the tz database, other than diff --git a/africa b/africa index d251500..7e3a860 100644 --- a/africa +++ b/africa @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ # This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of # 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson. -# This data is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, +# This file is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, # go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to # tz@iana.org for general use in the future). For more, please see # the file CONTRIBUTING in the tz distribution. diff --git a/asia b/asia index f8237f4..fbb9391 100644 --- a/asia +++ b/asia @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ # This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of # 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson. -# This data is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, +# This file is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, # go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to # tz@iana.org for general use in the future). For more, please see # the file CONTRIBUTING in the tz distribution. @@ -386,7 +386,7 @@ Rule PRC 1987 1991 - Apr Sun>=10 0:00 1:00 D # Xujiahui Observatory was under French control and stuck with UT+8. # # In earlier versions of this file, China had many separate Zone entries, but -# this was based on what was apparently incorrect data in Shanks & Pottenger. +# this was based on what were apparently incorrect data in Shanks & Pottenger. # This has now been simplified to the two entries Asia/Shanghai and # Asia/Urumqi, with the others being links for backward compatibility. # Proposed in 1918 and theoretically in effect until 1949 (although in practice @@ -2630,8 +2630,7 @@ Rule Syria 2007 only - Nov Fri>=1 0:00 0 - # From Stephen Colebourne (2008-03-17): # For everyone's info, I saw an IATA time zone change for [Syria] for -# this month (March 2008) in the last day or so...This is the data IATA -# are now using: +# this month (March 2008) in the last day or so.... # Country Time Standard --- DST Start --- --- DST End --- DST # Name Zone Variation Time Date Time Date # Variation diff --git a/australasia b/australasia index 094383e..117e841 100644 --- a/australasia +++ b/australasia @@ -761,7 +761,7 @@ Zone Pacific/Wallis 12:15:20 - LMT 1901 # NOTES -# This data is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, +# This file is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, # go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to # tz@iana.org for general use in the future). For more, please see # the file CONTRIBUTING in the tz distribution. diff --git a/europe b/europe index 68a0dc7..261b619 100644 --- a/europe +++ b/europe @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ # This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of # 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson. -# This data is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, +# This file is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, # go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to # tz@iana.org for general use in the future). For more, please see # the file CONTRIBUTING in the tz distribution. diff --git a/newctime.3 b/newctime.3 index dccab77..5a3f65a 100644 --- a/newctime.3 +++ b/newctime.3 @@ -235,7 +235,7 @@ time(2), tzfile(5) .SH NOTES The return values point to static data; -the data is overwritten by each call. +the data are overwritten by each call. The .B tm_zone field of a returned diff --git a/northamerica b/northamerica index 8958588..07cb33a 100644 --- a/northamerica +++ b/northamerica @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ # also includes Central America and the Caribbean -# This data is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, +# This file is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, # go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to # tz@iana.org for general use in the future). For more, please see # the file CONTRIBUTING in the tz distribution. diff --git a/southamerica b/southamerica index 08a0731..0f0c233 100644 --- a/southamerica +++ b/southamerica @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ # This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of # 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson. -# This data is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, +# This file is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, # go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to # tz@iana.org for general use in the future). For more, please see # the file CONTRIBUTING in the tz distribution. diff --git a/tzfile.5 b/tzfile.5 index f413349..182cc43 100644 --- a/tzfile.5 +++ b/tzfile.5 @@ -25,14 +25,14 @@ The number of UT/local indicators stored in the file. The number of standard/wall indicators stored in the file. .TP .I tzh_leapcnt -The number of leap seconds for which data is stored in the file. +The number of leap seconds for which data are stored in the file. .TP .I tzh_timecnt -The number of "transition times" for which data is stored +The number of "transition times" for which data are stored in the file. .TP .I tzh_typecnt -The number of "local time types" for which data is stored +The number of "local time types" for which data are stored in the file (must not be zero). .TP .I tzh_charcnt diff --git a/zic.8 b/zic.8 index a2e275d..2e5318a 100644 --- a/zic.8 +++ b/zic.8 @@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ no leap second information appears in output files. Be more verbose, and complain about the following situations: .RS .PP -The input data specifies a link to a link. +The input specifies a link to a link. .PP A year that appears in a data file is outside the range of years representable by -- 1.9.1
This is a somewhat more debated topic than the short commit message, so I thought I'd drop a couple of URLs in here for other perspectives, in case anyone is curious. (I don't care one way or the other how it's used in the tz archive, and am happy for Paul to follow his own personal preference, but I find the general topic interesting.) The question is whether data is still treated as the plural of datum, or whether it's converted into being a mass noun in its own right. It clearly started as the plural form of a count noun originally, but it's increasingly being used as a mass noun. My personal sense is that the movement towards data as a mass noun is substantial and has a great deal of momentum, and that in a few more decades it will be entrenched as a mass noun. http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2012/07/more-data-please http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/is-data-singular-or-plura... Re-running the ngram in the first URL shows a very similar graph as two years ago: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=data+is%2Cdata+are&year_start=... -- Russ Allbery (eagle@eyrie.org) <http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>
Russ Allbery wrote:
The question is whether data is still treated as the plural of datum, or whether it's converted into being a mass noun in its own right.
Thanks for mentioning that. To try to head this dispute off at the pass the attached new patch (pushed into the experimental version) rewords everything so that the word "data" is never used in a context that requires it to be plural, or that requires it to be plural either.
On 13 August 2014 06:27, Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu> wrote:
Thanks for mentioning that. To try to head this dispute off at the pass the attached new patch (pushed into the experimental version) rewords everything so that the word "data" is never used in a context that requires it to be plural, or that requires it to be plural either.
A sensible choice! Stephen
I personally think this second patch is a bit of a hypercorrection which is a bit more awkward in a few places than either the unpatched or all-plural versions (particularly with the phrases "data entries" and "data values"). That said, I can live with it. I think any linguistic descriptivist would tell you that "data" is used as both an uncountable/mass singular and the more traditional plural, and that whichever should be preferred is simply a matter of clarity in context. -- Tim Parenti On 13 August 2014 01:27, Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu> wrote:
Russ Allbery wrote:
The question is whether data is still treated as the plural of datum, or whether it's converted into being a mass noun in its own right.
Thanks for mentioning that. To try to head this dispute off at the pass the attached new patch (pushed into the experimental version) rewords everything so that the word "data" is never used in a context that requires it to be plural, or that requires it to be plural either.
At 2014-08-12 22:27, Paul Eggert wrote:
... To try to head this dispute off at the pass the attached new patch (pushed into the experimental version) rewords everything so that the word "data" is never used in a context that requires it to be plural, or that requires it to be plural either.
Re-casting is usually the best solution, IMO. nGrams* surprisingly (to me anyway) shows the plural being favored (over 2:1 in 1980), but getting closer (9:8 in 2007). British English favors the plural more. Fiction favors it less, to the point of being in the minority for a couple years in the early 2000s. I don't know what types of books are missing from these corpuses (corpii? :) ) though. Like other respondents, I have the sense that current IT literature favors the mass noun. * https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=data+is%2Cdata+are%2Cdata+does... -- Alan Mintz <Alan_Mintz+TZ_IANA@Earthlink.net>
On Wed, Aug 13, 2014 at 9:23 PM, Alan Mintz < Alan_Mintz+TZ_IANA@earthlink.net> wrote:
I don't know what types of books are missing from these corpuses (corpii? :) ) though.
The plural of corpus in English is corpora, in common use by practitioners of corpus linguistics. Same thing in Latin, more or less: the nominative singular is corpus, nominative plural corpora. It's neuter third declension; the plurals that end in -i are typically masculine, second declension. But I'm afraid we're getting both off-topic and pedantic. Gwillim Law
I object to this. It changes readable English into nonsense. Changing "The number of "transition times" for which data is stored" to "The number of "transition times" for which data are stored" is just plain wrong. I understand that "data" may be in some senses a plural, but no-one ever uses it in that way. Consider it a quirk of English. This patch needs reverting (if it had been on a git branch it would never have passed its review and been easily discarded). Stephen On 13 August 2014 02:03, Paul Eggert <eggert@cs.ucla.edu> wrote:
--- NEWS | 10 +++++----- Theory | 4 ++-- africa | 2 +- asia | 7 +++---- australasia | 2 +- europe | 2 +- newctime.3 | 2 +- northamerica | 2 +- southamerica | 2 +- tzfile.5 | 6 +++--- zic.8 | 2 +- 11 files changed, 20 insertions(+), 21 deletions(-)
diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS index 4be8450..9765e56 100644 --- a/NEWS +++ b/NEWS @@ -427,7 +427,7 @@ Release 2014a - 2014-03-07 23:30:29 -0800
Microsoft has some support for tz database names.
- CLDR data is available in both XML and JSON form. + CLDR data are available in both XML and JSON form.
Mention Maggiolo's map of solar vs standard time. (Thanks to Arthur David Olson.) @@ -671,8 +671,8 @@ Release 2013e - 2013-09-19 23:50:04 -0700 some errors before 1947.
Some zones have been turned into links, when they differ from - existing zones only in older data that was likely invented or that - differs only in LMT or transition from LMT. These changes affect + existing zones only in older data that were likely invented or that + differ only in LMT or transitions from LMT. These changes affect only time stamps before 1943. The affected zones are: Africa/Juba, America/Anguilla, America/Aruba, America/Dominica, America/Grenada, America/Guadeloupe, America/Marigot, @@ -2543,7 +2543,7 @@ Release 94h - 1994-12-10 12:51:14 -0500 data files.
Think of this as "TZ Classic" - the software has been set up not to break if - universal time shows up in its input, and the data has been left as is so as + universal time shows up in its input, and the data have been left as is so as not to break existing implementations.
@@ -2623,7 +2623,7 @@ Release 93f - 1993-10-15 12:27:46 -0400
Release 93e - 1993-09-05 21:21:44 -0400
- There's updated data for Israel, England, and Kwajalein; there's + There are updated data for Israel, England, and Kwajalein; there's also an update to "zdump" to cope with Kwajalein's 24-hour jump. Thanks to Paul Eggert and Peter Ilieve for the changes.
diff --git a/Theory b/Theory index 2a3a911..15c695e 100644 --- a/Theory +++ b/Theory @@ -254,7 +254,7 @@ Errors in the tz database arise from many sources: the current single entry for France would need to split into dozens of entries, perhaps hundreds.
- * Most of the pre-1970 data comes from unreliable sources, often + * Most of the pre-1970 data come from unreliable sources, often astrology books that lack citations and whose compilers evidently invented entries when the true facts were unknown, without reporting which entries were known and which were invented. @@ -283,7 +283,7 @@ Errors in the tz database arise from many sources: Caledonian railways.
* The tz database does not record the earliest time for which a - zone's data is thereafter valid for every location in the region. + zone's data are thereafter valid for every location in the region. For example, Europe/London is valid for all locations in its region after GMT was made the standard time, but the date of standardization (1880-08-02) is not in the tz database, other than diff --git a/africa b/africa index d251500..7e3a860 100644 --- a/africa +++ b/africa @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ # This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of # 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson.
-# This data is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, +# This file is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, # go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to # tz@iana.org for general use in the future). For more, please see # the file CONTRIBUTING in the tz distribution. diff --git a/asia b/asia index f8237f4..fbb9391 100644 --- a/asia +++ b/asia @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ # This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of # 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson.
-# This data is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, +# This file is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, # go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to # tz@iana.org for general use in the future). For more, please see # the file CONTRIBUTING in the tz distribution. @@ -386,7 +386,7 @@ Rule PRC 1987 1991 - Apr Sun>=10 0:00 1:00 D # Xujiahui Observatory was under French control and stuck with UT+8. # # In earlier versions of this file, China had many separate Zone entries, but -# this was based on what was apparently incorrect data in Shanks & Pottenger. +# this was based on what were apparently incorrect data in Shanks & Pottenger. # This has now been simplified to the two entries Asia/Shanghai and # Asia/Urumqi, with the others being links for backward compatibility. # Proposed in 1918 and theoretically in effect until 1949 (although in practice @@ -2630,8 +2630,7 @@ Rule Syria 2007 only - Nov Fri>=1 0:00 0 -
# From Stephen Colebourne (2008-03-17): # For everyone's info, I saw an IATA time zone change for [Syria] for -# this month (March 2008) in the last day or so...This is the data IATA -# are now using: +# this month (March 2008) in the last day or so.... # Country Time Standard --- DST Start --- --- DST End --- DST # Name Zone Variation Time Date Time Date # Variation diff --git a/australasia b/australasia index 094383e..117e841 100644 --- a/australasia +++ b/australasia @@ -761,7 +761,7 @@ Zone Pacific/Wallis 12:15:20 - LMT 1901
# NOTES
-# This data is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, +# This file is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, # go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to # tz@iana.org for general use in the future). For more, please see # the file CONTRIBUTING in the tz distribution. diff --git a/europe b/europe index 68a0dc7..261b619 100644 --- a/europe +++ b/europe @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ # This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of # 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson.
-# This data is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, +# This file is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, # go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to # tz@iana.org for general use in the future). For more, please see # the file CONTRIBUTING in the tz distribution. diff --git a/newctime.3 b/newctime.3 index dccab77..5a3f65a 100644 --- a/newctime.3 +++ b/newctime.3 @@ -235,7 +235,7 @@ time(2), tzfile(5) .SH NOTES The return values point to static data; -the data is overwritten by each call. +the data are overwritten by each call. The .B tm_zone field of a returned diff --git a/northamerica b/northamerica index 8958588..07cb33a 100644 --- a/northamerica +++ b/northamerica @@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
# also includes Central America and the Caribbean
-# This data is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, +# This file is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, # go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to # tz@iana.org for general use in the future). For more, please see # the file CONTRIBUTING in the tz distribution. diff --git a/southamerica b/southamerica index 08a0731..0f0c233 100644 --- a/southamerica +++ b/southamerica @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ # This file is in the public domain, so clarified as of # 2009-05-17 by Arthur David Olson.
-# This data is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, +# This file is by no means authoritative; if you think you know better, # go ahead and edit the file (and please send any changes to # tz@iana.org for general use in the future). For more, please see # the file CONTRIBUTING in the tz distribution. diff --git a/tzfile.5 b/tzfile.5 index f413349..182cc43 100644 --- a/tzfile.5 +++ b/tzfile.5 @@ -25,14 +25,14 @@ The number of UT/local indicators stored in the file. The number of standard/wall indicators stored in the file. .TP .I tzh_leapcnt -The number of leap seconds for which data is stored in the file. +The number of leap seconds for which data are stored in the file. .TP .I tzh_timecnt -The number of "transition times" for which data is stored +The number of "transition times" for which data are stored in the file. .TP .I tzh_typecnt -The number of "local time types" for which data is stored +The number of "local time types" for which data are stored in the file (must not be zero). .TP .I tzh_charcnt diff --git a/zic.8 b/zic.8 index a2e275d..2e5318a 100644 --- a/zic.8 +++ b/zic.8 @@ -72,7 +72,7 @@ no leap second information appears in output files. Be more verbose, and complain about the following situations: .RS .PP -The input data specifies a link to a link. +The input specifies a link to a link. .PP A year that appears in a data file is outside the range of years representable by -- 1.9.1
On 13/08/14 02:03, Paul Eggert wrote:
Think of this as "TZ Classic" - the software has been set up not to break if - universal time shows up in its input, and the data has been left as is so as + universal time shows up in its input, and the data have been left as is so as not to break existing implementations.
English is a fluid language and while datum is the singular and data is the plural the use of datum has largely fallen out of favour (and favor) and "data" as both singular and plural (like "sheep" or "fish") is now the norm. In many cases "the data are" is as natural sounding as "the data is", in some cases one or the other sounds stilted. I often hear or read "a single data point" rather than "a datum" and it's the latter that sounds weird, not the former. Recently I was listening to a discussion with someone academically well-qualified[1] talking about this subject. People a "a bacteria" instead of "a bacterium". You hear "stadiums" and "referendums" instead of "stadia" and "referenda". That doesn't make someone using one instead of the other right or wrong, it's just the state of the language today. The discussion ended with where this plural form came from: Latin words that end "um" for the singular end "a" for the plural. Bacterium, however, is Greek. And plural. I'd chose "data is" vs "data are" depending on which reads more naturally rather than sticking to the (almost archaic) view that it can only be used as a plural. jch [1] I forget whether the lady in question was a Professor at one of the major UK universities or someone from the Oxford English Dictionary. Either was she was someone you'd expect to argue for "proper" use of plurals but she in fact advocated relaxing and going with the flow. English, she said, is defined by use, unlike French which is defined by mandate. Incidentally, the spell checker that this MUA is using is happy with data, datum and datums as well as referenda, referendum and referendums.
On Aug 13, 2014, at 5:22 AM, John Haxby <john.haxby@oracle.com> wrote:
On 13/08/14 02:03, Paul Eggert wrote:
Think of this as "TZ Classic" - the software has been set up not to break if - universal time shows up in its input, and the data has been left as is so as + universal time shows up in its input, and the data have been left as is so as not to break existing implementations.
English is a fluid language and while datum is the singular and data is the plural the use of datum has largely fallen out of favour (and favor) and "data" as both singular and plural (like "sheep" or "fish") is now the norm. In many cases "the data are" is as natural sounding as "the data is", in some cases one or the other sounds stilted. I often hear or read "a single data point" rather than "a datum" and it's the latter that sounds weird, not the former.
It depends on your background, and where you are. I suspect the opinions are different in the USA, where English is slaughtered/evolved ( :-) ) rather actively, than they would be in some other parts of the world. I’m used to seeing “data” treated as singular, but I don’t have the “weird” reaction when I see it constructed as plural. Having had Latin in high school is probably a contributing factor.
... The discussion ended with where this plural form came from: Latin words that end "um" for the singular end "a" for the plural. Bacterium, however, is Greek. And plural.
Greek, yes, sort of (a Latinized form of a Greek word, as you can see from its Latin ending). Plural, no. But that’s a bit off topic for this list.
I'd chose "data is" vs "data are" depending on which reads more naturally rather than sticking to the (almost archaic) view that it can only be used as a plural.
That seems reasonable. I see no objection to “data are” but it’s clear that “data is” has become acceptable, and for that reason would be a sensible choice. paul
On 13/08/14 16:03, Paul_Koning@dell.com wrote:
English is a fluid language and while datum is the singular and data is
the plural the use of datum has largely fallen out of favour (and favor) and "data" as both singular and plural (like "sheep" or "fish") is now the norm. In many cases "the data are" is as natural sounding as "the data is", in some cases one or the other sounds stilted. I often hear or read "a single data point" rather than "a datum" and it's the latter that sounds weird, not the former. It depends on your background, and where you are. I suspect the opinions are different in the USA, where English is slaughtered/evolved ( :-) ) rather actively, than they would be in some other parts of the world. I’m used to seeing “data” treated as singular, but I don’t have the “weird” reaction when I see it constructed as plural. Having had Latin in high school is probably a contributing factor.
What I find strange here is the rewriting of history ... That one method of working was adopted 10 years ago is a fact of history, so re-writing the news file to satisfy someone's objection to what was and in many cases still is normal practice is something that I object to. Similarly changing 'timezone' to 'time zone' is another development that personally I see little logic to and the demand now to re-write documents because they are 'wrong' is as bad as changing historic document for political reasons rather than factual ones. They were factually correct when written ... end of story. In my book they are still timezones :) -- Lester Caine - G8HFL ----------------------------- Contact - http://lsces.co.uk/wiki/?page=contact L.S.Caine Electronic Services - http://lsces.co.uk EnquirySolve - http://enquirysolve.com/ Model Engineers Digital Workshop - http://medw.co.uk Rainbow Digital Media - http://rainbowdigitalmedia.co.uk
Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 07:40:57 +0100 From: Lester Caine <lester@lsces.co.uk> Message-ID: <53EC59F9.2080203@lsces.co.uk> | In my book they are still timezones :) I don't gree with the "still", But I certainly agree with the conclusion - that is, timezone (as a single word) is now perfectly OK (as is filesystem). English has a long tradition of making combined words out of adjective/noun pairs when the object described is a significant, and often used, such that the pair appear together very frequently. Consider "afternoon" as an obvious example - a word now undisputably I think - has been for a very long time) yet it would once have been more correctly "after noon", which is exactly what it describes. There are lots more examples (several more afterxxx words, like afterthought, also backbone, bathroom, breakfast...) from long ago, but also others that have only formed more recently (eg: striptease, which a couple of hundred years ago didn't exist, and then when the "art" form appeared, was a "strip tease", but now has formed into a single word, and the separated form is rarely, if ever seen). Similarly backfire, broadsheet, cheerleader, and more ... examples are not hard to find (just don't count cases where a prefix or suffix happens also to be a word "bothersome politicians" and "bother some politicians" don't mean the same thing at all ... the "some" suffix has nothing to do with the word "some"... same for membership, etc). Also, there is a long tradition of new words forming in technical communities (especially medicine of course) and then later being exported to the community as a whole - so even if timezone (or filesystem) are not yet in widespread enough use outside the computing/timekeeping ommunities, there's no reason we can't keep using them, until they are. kre ps: to fit this message to the subject, I gave up demanding that data be treated as plural decades ago - treating it as an uncountable seems fine to me (and retire datum to the relics of words that have died) which means that "data" would always have a singular verb, regardless of how much data is being discussed. Alternatively it could turn into one of those words like sheep/fish which are their own plural (and are nothing like the uncountables). Which happens will depend upon how usage develops over the coming decades and longer - for now, just write whatever seems natural. And avoid fixing or criticising, what seems natural to others.
John Haxby said:
[1] I forget whether the lady in question was a Professor at one of the major UK universities or someone from the Oxford English Dictionary. Either was she was someone you'd expect to argue for "proper" use of plurals but she in fact advocated relaxing and going with the flow. English, she said, is defined by use, unlike French which is defined by mandate.
That's the official policy of the OED. -- Clive D.W. Feather | If you lie to the compiler, Email: clive@davros.org | it will get its revenge. Web: http://www.davros.org | - Henry Spencer Mobile: +44 7973 377646
On 8/13/2014 11:22 AM, John Haxby wrote:
English, she said, is defined by use, unlike French which is defined by mandate.
A total misconception (about French). At best, there are groups who think they are defining the language, but just like with any other language, speakers do whatever they want to do. The "Académie française" in particular is interesting. It's latest complete dictionary is currently the 8th edition, completed in 1935. The "new" edition, started in 1986, is currently towards the end of the letter Q. I am trying to live long enough to learn if I can use the word "serenpidité" but I am not holding my breath. On the other hand, there many linguists do record what the speakers say and writers write. A good example, in the area of grammar, is the famous "Le bon usage", by Grévisse, which is very inclusive. Eric.
The English word "data" is absolutely not (exclusively) plural in 21st century English. It was exclusively plural at some point in the past, and that sense is still available (though a bit archaic) when talking about individual data points, but that's not the usual sense in computing, and not the sense used in the text files this patch edits. "Data" in its most common current English usage is a non-countable (mass) noun, like "water". I.e. you'd say "I have too much data, I need less," not *"I have too many data, I need fewer." Such nouns take singular verb forms. The Latin word "data" is indeed the plural of "datum", but that's a different language. On Tuesday, August 12 2014, "Paul Eggert" wrote to "tz@iana.org" saying:
--- NEWS | 10 +++++----- Theory | 4 ++-- africa | 2 +- asia | 7 +++---- australasia | 2 +- europe | 2 +- newctime.3 | 2 +- northamerica | 2 +- southamerica | 2 +- tzfile.5 | 6 +++--- zic.8 | 2 +- 11 files changed, 20 insertions(+), 21 deletions(-)
-- Jonathan Lennox lennox@cs.columbia.edu
participants (13)
-
Alan Mintz -
Clive D.W. Feather -
Eric Muller -
Gwillim Law -
John Haxby -
lennox＠cs.columbia.edu -
Lester Caine -
Paul Eggert -
Paul_Koning＠dell.com -
Robert Elz -
Russ Allbery -
Stephen Colebourne -
Tim Parenti