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From: gh@utai.UUCP (Graeme Hirst)
Newsgroups: net.nlang
Subject: Re: "Data points"
Message-ID: <674@utai.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 27-Aug-85 17:26:03 EDT
Article-I.D.: utai.674
Posted: Tue Aug 27 17:26:03 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 27-Aug-85 18:42:24 EDT
References: <214@tekig4.UUCP> <330@faron.UUCP>
Organization: CSRI, University of Toronto
Lines: 45

> >Every time I hear somebody say "a data point", something
> >doesn't sound right.  I think that "a datum point" would
> >in most cases be more correct.
>
> Data (n.pl.) and  Datum (n.) are nouns, not adjectives.
> The American Heritage Dictionary has a usage note under Data (n.pl.)
> indicating that 50% of the usage panel accepts treating 'data' as a
> singular, apparently as a collective noun (as in a gaggle of geese,
> or a pride of lions).
>
> Data and datum are not adjectives.  Thus, it is either "a point of data,"
> or "a datum," not "a data point" [sic].
>
>   William Ricker

That has nothing to do with the question at all.  English (have you never
noticed?) allows one noun to modify another.  This is called noun-noun
modification (surprise!), and has been extensively studied in recent years.
It is a particularly difficult problem in computer understanding of language.

For example, "computer" is not listed as an adjective, but we can say
	computer science	computer game
	computer graphics	computer maintenance
The language is filled with such things.  Many have been lexicalized as
"canned phrases", but the construction is highly productive:
	thesis topic		cheese board
	chess clock		pilchard sandwich
	risk analysis		tent sale
	springbok expert	noun-noun modification diatribe
In addition, Levi (1978) has shown that many constructions that look like
adj-noun pairs are better analyzed as noun-noun pairs.

In the particular case at hand, the question is not whether a noun can modify
another, but whether the modifying noun may be a plural (it can't) or a mass
noun (it can -- e.g. "jelly sandwich" -- but it's stylistically very bad
in this particular case).

	Reference

LEVI, Judith N (1978).	The syntax and semantics of compound nominals.
New York: Academic Press, 1978.

-- 
\\\\   Graeme Hirst    University of Toronto	Computer Science Department
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