docs/176806: recv(2) man page grammatical fixes

[Eitan Adler]

On 10 March 2013 14:44, Eitan Adler <lists at eitanadler.com> wrote:
> On 10 March 2013 11:50, Chris Rees <utisoft at gmail.com> wrote:
>> The following reply was made to PR docs/176806; it has been noted by GNATS.
>>
>> From: Chris Rees <utisoft at gmail.com>
>> To: bug-followup at freebsd.org
>> Cc:
>> Subject: Re: docs/176806: recv(2) man page grammatical fixes
>> Date: Sun, 10 Mar 2013 15:42:17 +0000
>>
>>  --f46d0447f382b381fd04d793e65c
>>  Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>>
>>  The word "data" is plural of "datum", so yes, were is correct here.
>
> "data" is an uncountable noun ("mass noun") such that it is always
> treated as a single unit.  If this confuses you think about the word
> "water".
>
> "and the timeout expired before water were received."
> vs
> "and the timeout expired before water was received."
>
> "was" is correct.


Some further (slightly technical) explanation:

This is the link tree of "The data was received."

    +----------------Xp---------------+
    +-----Wd-----+                    |
    |      +-Dmu-+--Ss-+---Pv---+     |
    |      |     |     |        |     |
LEFT-WALL the data.n was.v received.v .


Note that data is marked "Dmu" which implies it is a mass-only plural.
 If "were" were permitted then it would be marked "D*u-" implying it
is either a mass noun or a plural.

There are two possible link trees for "The data were received."


    +----------------Xp----------------+
    +-----Wd-----+                     |
    |      +-Dmc-+--Spx-+---Pv---+     |
    |      |     |      |        |     |
LEFT-WALL the data.p were.v received.v .



    +----------------Xp----------------+
    +-----Wd-----+                     |
    |      +-Dmu-+--Ss--+---Pv---+     |
    |      |     |      |        |     |
LEFT-WALL the data.n were.v received.v .

Note that Dmc implies plural only while Dmu implies mass-only.

This ambiguity results in unease.

The version with "was" is unambiguous and correct.

-- 
Eitan Adler