Datum, Data, Big Data, Big Text

Datum v. Data:

The word data is the plural of datum. To Put it even more starkly: Data is Plural. It signifies the availability of more than one datum -- or "data points" -- as are to be found in a scattergram, for example, where each "point" or dot represents one count in, or  "member" of, a sample or population. But even when referring to lots of data (or gathered or observed "datum" points), the word data has become, even among the savviest of analysts and 'reporters' (who are not necessarily the best linguists or the most cautious custodians of grammar), singularly singular in its day-to-day use (read this). Thus, for example, when economic or stock market statistics point in a discernible direction, we still 'hear' pundits almost invariably remark that "...the data tells us that..." or "shows that...". But they are, it seems, instinctively too reticent to remark that "...the statistics tells us...". Statistics always tell and show. So why is data so clumsily used? Why is this increasingly ever-present meme apparently so irredeemably lost?

Contributors and Editors at Wikipedia have grappled with this meme, and generally take the view that it is just fine to treat data as a singular -- "a mass noun". But they are clearly cognizant of its etymology and the attendant weight of grammar -- and thus implicitly acknowledge or fear that the notion of data as acceptably singular will sound to those who disagree as less Solomonic and more a deference or concession to the gallery (of casual users of the term).

READ: Data viewed as "a mass noun"

Here's what Tayler Krupa (2012) said about the proper use of datum and data:

"As noted in the sixth edition of the [APA Style] Publication Manual (p. 79), the plural form of some nouns of foreign origin—particularly those that end in the letter a—may appear to be singular and can cause authors to select a verb that does not agree in number with the noun. This is certainly the case with the word data. As shown in the Publication Manual (p. 96), the word datum is singular, and the word data is plural. Plural nouns take plural verbs, so data should be followed by a plural verb. To help clear up any confusion regarding the proper use of these terms, I list examples of datum and data being used correctly below..."


From Data to Big Data:

No one says Big Statistics. No one ever did, perhaps (correct me, s'il vous plait). But everyone, carried away by a certain current (a certain currency) of consciousness, says Big Data -- including yours truly. That's where we're headed after we're done with plain and simple data. Yes? Yet how cloudy and 'unreachable' is it where we must increasingly strive to safely keep it?

My mom's quite alert to the challenge; to the hilarity and boundless promise of clouds, up in the heavens, as hiding places for paperwork and suchlike -- against prying eyes and stealthy hands.

Do national statistics constitute big data -- or is that the preserve of tech giants of the world?

READ: "Kenya GDP Annual Growth Rate| 2004-2017|..."


Body Text:

Verbal language is so expansive it can only be "spoke", or more precisely "texted", within specific (con)texts. As with the spoken word, so too with such messages as the body involuntarily broadcasts or consciously emits within/across engaged (or communicating) "circles" or "parties" or contacts. As a term, then, "body language" is a monumental and "thoughtless" misnomer. All that we have are body texts extended or bounded by certain structures of intuitive or culturally (or experientially) mediated meaning. We have a plenitude of body texts -- but at best only illusions of body language. Body texts are the building-blocks of "big text" -- a term fairly recently chanced upon by yours truly thanks to inventive SONY Corp.


From Body Text to Big Text?

Is a mass of logically challenged argumentation on a WhatsApp wall, or a Trumped-up Twitter feed, characteristically Big Text? Is Big Text by definition more broadly cast and (or) other than Body Text? Not necessarily. And yet SONY, seemingly cogitating on a tangent, implies (indeed claims) that its mass-appeal World Cup images on huge TV screens represent Big Text as an 'evolutionary' phenomenon in the memetic sphere. Perhaps so, after all. In which case, so do (in more subtle ways) their precedents: the Pyramids of Giza, Mona Lisa, Guernica, The Last Supper, Black Panther (The Movie), the Wildebeest Migration -- and The Elusive/Living Black Panther. Just examples, these --  which are no substitute for robust classifications, for sure. But in fluid or rapidly changing contexts they do help point the way to deeper (re)cognition and greater clarity.



Updated: February 14, 2019