Wow, how many times people tried to “correct” your English for all these years? What did you do when that happened? The Grammar Gestapo rules high and mighty on Twitter especially.

“Staff” is an interesting example. I've seen both uses. Mostly, I've seen that if a speaker is referring to a nearby, currently existing group of employees, they use “are” (e.g. The staff are downstairs watching the news about the storm right now), and if the speaker is referring to every employee at once, they use “is” (e.g. The staff is pleasantly surprised in the recent expansion of benefits). Good catch on that one, Ace. It hadn't blipped on my radar.

-PurpleCar Christine Cavalier
http://www.purplecar.net/

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Dziekujemy
Dekoju
Вы
Toda
Multumesc
Spasibo
Grazie
Gracias

Thank you! And you are right, Mr. Pienkovski, the first step is knowledge. And it's nice to know you. Please come again soon.

Peace!
-Christine Cavalier, PurpleCar
http://www.purplecar.net/

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I love folk ideologies as an area of study. Fascinating. So many great pop books have been published lately in the behavioral economics realm about motivations and how people dream up elaborate justifications for them, when in reality one's decisions are mostly influenced by the environment and events directly preceding the decisions. (Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert is highly entertaining along these lines).

My interests tend to be at the crossroads of cultures. My masters thesis concentrated on the use of African-American dialect (Philadelphia, PA) in classroom settings in public schools. I wanted to see how different teachers looked on the colloquial use in subjects other than English or English Lit. Did they take a prescriptivist or descriptivist approach? How did the students speak? I presented the data in ethnography form as well as more quantitative methods. I'm more of a psycholinguistics person in general, rather than a grammar geek. I had some exposure to C.A. Perfetti at Pitt as an undergrad, and he blew me away. Also, Pitt's Philosophy department taught me everything I needed to know about theory… I digress.

So now, years after my research has long finished, I find myself isolated from academia and immersed in a popular yet niche culture. My descriptivist and populist ethics send me into a tailspin when confronted by the inane attitudes of some in this crowd, and out come blog posts or Twitter conversations like these. I try to spread some tolerance and understanding, but with language, I find, the folk ideologies never get enough credence by the folks themselves! Perhaps it is our stark Calvinist or Protestant background that drives us toward a schoolmarmesque attitude toward grammar rules. Who knows?

One thing I do know is that the grammar police on Twitter are trés annoying and should be avoided at all costs.

Sorry I jumped on your “metaphor” comment. I thought perhaps you were
saying I was using the equivalent of anecdotal evidence (*shudder*).
You may be right: the explanation may prove bulky. I'm hoping the presentation of one incidence of a mass noun will be enough to convince this tech crowd to disregard their steadfast theories. Usually, if programmers are presented with just one anomaly, they'll go to work immediately rewriting the code.

I suppose I shouldn't bother. This post has already attracted some intolerance and mimicry, despite the absence of any claims of my expertise in this area. I'm interested; I'm aware of theory. I'd like to spread some new thoughts of acceptance and tolerance to my current cohort. It should be simple. Yet I find that my tech community is less tolerant of language changes than any other group I've experienced. We could talk for hours about schema or gestalts or egos or stick-your-favorite-personality-theory-in-here and we'd still get nowhere on the road to understanding the pure fear and insecurity that gets roiled up when these people spot “incorrect” English. For the love of PETE!

Anyway, I'm not looking to explain away why we should move to a mass noun usage for “data.” I'm trying to reach a community that needs to understand change in certain ways. I personally don't care all that much about why it's changing, just the fact that it is changing. I thought the sea metaphor might give my folks some basic understanding of the concept of mass noun and how “data” fits into it.

I probably should go back to posting about Facebook.

-Christine

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Metaphorical motivation wasn't my intent. My article is for a non-academic audience, specifically the Twitter grammar police who are not professional linguists in the least. Their knowledge of language is cursory at best. This is just an introduction to the issue for a general audience. I can understand how linguists would be annoyed at my use of metaphor to explain the concept of a mass noun.

I agree that it's best for all users to avoid subject/verb agreement phrasing with the words “data” and “media.” Stick 'em at the end of the sentence, I tell writers, or use “bits of data” or “pieces of media.” At this juncture, taking my political stance requires a bit of bravery in face of risk. I tend toward the populist nature, so naturally I'd take this route myself, but I don't presume to require compliance from that “general culture” to which I refer. (<— I didn't end that phrase in a preposition for your sake.:-) )

Peace!
Christine Cavalier, PurpleCar
http://www.purplecar.net/

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This change with the verb usage is not “helpful” or “unhelpful.” It simply is an organic change reflecting the change in culture. You can hem and haw all you want, but this is not a change that I'll slow down or fight against in any way. Good luck to you if you'd like to fight the good fight.

Peace!
-PurpleCar
http://www.purplecar.net/

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Peace!
-PurpleCar
http://www.purplecar.net/

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