The tide can't be stemmed

One intention of constructive pedantry is to maintain a modicum of stability in our language. A generation or two ago, the twin brakes that prevented runaway change were (a) the norm of the printed word and (b) the influence of school education. Now such changes may seem to be under no effective control, and indeed are hastened by the phenomenon of media that are aware that 'slang' and other jargon are popular just because they represent the rejection of long-standing social and linguistic norms; and, being popular, encourage people to visit* such media.

* It took some firm self-control not to use the new jargon verb 'to access' here.

There we are - I wrote that phrase without any intention to score a point: "media that recognise . . ." (not, as so many write or say who ought to know better, "a media that recognises . . . " Ooh.)

A certain 'historian and broadcaster' (a 'Dr' - PhD ?) writing to The Times recently referred to 'resources such as the internet, where this data can be found . . .' This educated gentleman is probably well aware that the term 'data' is plural - but few authors or broadcasters now bother to write or say the formerly correct "these data are . . ." rather than the modern (say, thirty years old) "this data is . . ." Similarly we may read that "such graffiti is to be seen on all the walls . . .".

Aha, responds the counter-pedant (for there are schools or parties of pedantry, just as there are of poetry or politics); what about the term 'agenda' ? That's a plural Latin word - but does a Chairman remind his committee that "the agenda are on the table ?"

We would no longer be surprised to be told, ungrammatically, "There is green algae all over the window frame"; but Latin algae is plural. "So what ?" enquires the counter-pedant. "Do you expect us to speak of stadia ? Or to compliment a gardener friend on their irides and antirrhina ? You might as well accuse a person of throwing tantra rather than tantrums.*"

* Tantrum - some sort of 18th century slang, perhaps; there is also a word tantra , meaning a Hindu or Buddhist book of wisdom. No relation to one another.

But, as we constantly have to remind ourselves, language is not constant. It flows, it evolves. Our Elizabethan ancestors lived at a time when the word 'news' was still plural. "Are the news not alarming ?" Sir Walter might have commented to Sir Henry. The term was a translation of the medieval French 'nouvelles'. (Sir Walter wouldn't - or shouldn't - have used the phrase 'latest news', because the very term 'news' embodies the notion of up-to-dateness.)

The tide can't be stemmed