Confederacy of a Dunce - When is data like rabbits?

Monday, February 27, 2006

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When it/they is/are multiplying.

This weekend I came across a Microsoft poster advertising some sort of data management system, presumably aimed at workers who are suffering from information overload (both the poster and the system are aimed at such people, so feel free to attach the "presumably" clause wherever you prefer). This problem was illustrated by a harried-looking employee-type, thinking (or perhaps actually saying; I don't recall whether it was in a speech balloon or thought balloon)
"This data is multiplying like rabbits."

Readers of a grammatically conservative disposition (SNOOTs, in the terminology of one particular such individual) will no doubt have already reacted in some way to this brief sentence; depending on one's level of grammatical conservatism and dramatic character, such reactions might range from a sigh and small headshake all the way up to retching, gasping and shouting (which may in turn elicit sigh/headshake reactions from the retcher/shouter's companions depending on relative tolerance for public displays of overdramatic reactions). Although my own reaction at the time may have been more on the sigh/headshake side of things (Mrs. Dunce may disagree), the sentence really stuck in my head as something very wrong. It starts with the question of whether "data" can be used as a singular noun (you know, datum = the correct singular term, and all that). As a frequent cruncher of data myself, I am very strongly biased toward strictly plural use of the term "data" and singular uses like "This data is..." are somewhat irritating to me.*

But even if "data" in this instance is allowed to take a singular verb (and also the "This" instead of "These", which I didn't even mention but causes me similar discomfort), there's still a problem with its relation to the figurative language in the predicate: the singular reading is very much at odds with the laws of nature and the way in which rabbits multiply. If you have only one rabbit (or any other animal**), it's not very likely to multiply on its own (excepting certain initial state conditions). So the parallel between rabbits and data is a very clunky one, especially if "data" is (syntactically) singular. This clunkiness extends to many other instances of "is multiplying/breeding like rabbits" found in the wild (Google results), a substantial number of which are collectives ("unwanted mail", "roster of customers", "bad news", "the number of _____"; plus loads of, erm, invective directed at particular groups, such as "the Catholic religion", "an immigrant group", "white trash", "Moslem population" and so on). In all of these cases it's not the groups themselves that are multiplying/breeding but the individuals. However, this kind of use is not at all uncommon; in fact, "is multiplying/breeding like rabbits" is nearly as common as "are multiplying/breeding like rabbits" (503 and 677 Google hits respectively).

*I should note that the typical "wrong" use of "data" with a singular verb is not really as a singular noun, but instead as a collective term (like "family", "team" and so on). If "data" is a collective noun, it should by all rights be used with a singular verb (in US English at least; UK English is another story). All I can say is that I use "data" with plural verbs. I should also note, however, that my 100% plural use of the term "data" is accomplished by use of some additional terms derived from "data", term which might almost be considered "cheating". For example, instead of "datum" I tend to use "datapoint" or "data point". Hardly the most efficient way to singularize a plural term; it's almost like saying "a dogs-individual" when you mean "a dog". I similarly avoid the "collective" problem by using the term "dataset".

**Any other animal except, apparently, some sort of grass mite. Tribbles don't count because they are not real, as far as I know anyway.

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Monday, February 27, 2006 12:16:24 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)