Literally, Justine, the act of “gaslighting” is to illuminate something by, say, a torch that’s fueled by a flammable gas such as acetylene, ammonia, hydrogen, propane, propylene, or methane. Just from the names of these noxious gases that could kill you if you inhaled even just a whiff of any of them, we can therefore imagine how unpleasant and horrible and injurious if not deadly the experience would be to anyone who has been or is being subjected to gaslighting.
IMAGE CREDIT: RELATIONSHIPRETROGRADE.COM You’ve quoted the movie star Bea Alonzo as having said this about a former fellow movie actor whose name we will withhold from this word-origin analysis: “Apart from, of course, the whole infidelity thing and the whole ghosting thing, I think I am mad at him more because he
gaslighted me.”
(Italicization mine)The raw fury in Bea Alonzo’s remark over what she claims had been done to her starkly captures the figurative sense of the word “gaslighting” as a form of emotional abuse in intimate relationships: “It’s the act of manipulating a person by forcing them to question their thoughts, memories, and the events occurring around them. A victim of gaslighting can be pushed so far that they question their own sanity.”
The
website Healthline.com explains how to recognize gaslighting and get help when you or someone you know is being subjected to such vicious treatment. It enumerates the various signs of being gaslighted and how a gaslighter is able to wreak havoc on the sensitivities and vulnerabilities of his or her victim.
Is “data” singular or plural?Now let’s take up the noun “data” that remains confusing to not a few people as to whether it’s singular or plural in these three sentences you presented: “
Data is a new natural resource.
Data is the new oil.
Data is the currency of the digital era.”
IMAGE CREDIT: EDITORSMANUAL.COMAs my trusty
Merriam-Webster’s 11th Collegiate Dictionary succinctly says, the word “data” is unique in that it “leads a life of its own quite independent of datum, of which it was originally the plural. It occurs in two constructions: as a plural noun (like
earnings), taking a plural verb and plural modifiers (as
these,
many,
a few) but not cardinal numbers, and serving as a referent for plural pronouns (as
they,
them); and as an abstract mass noun (like
information), taking a singular verb and singular modifiers (as
this,
much,
little), and being referred to by a singular pronoun (
it). Both constructions are standard. The plural construction is more common in print, evidently because the house style of several publishers mandates it.”
In short, “data” is functionally a plural noun that can be singular depending on how you constructed your sentence.
What kind of sentence is this legalese, “Hence, the instant recourse”? IMAGE CREDIT: 7ESL.COM/COORDINATING-CONJUNCTIONSFinally, to your third question as to what kind of sentence construction the following legal statement is: “Petitioner filed a motion for reconsideration but was denied.
Hence, the instant recourse.”
To the best of my grammar knowledge (I’m not a lawyer so I’m making this caveat to avoid being needlessly assailed by legal nazis), that statement is lawyer’s emphatic legal shorthand for a compound sentence with two related ideas. Recall that by definition, a
compound sentence has at least two independent clauses that have related ideas, with the independent clauses joined by a
coordinating conjunction (“for,” “and,” “nor,” “but,” “or,” “yet,” or “so”) or by a semicolon.
In the case of the statement that you presented, its standard compound construction will usually take this form: “
The Petitioner filed a motion for reconsideration
but that motion was denied,
so the Petitioner took the recourse that has just been stated (or described) here.”
For brevity, the typical lawyer knocks off the article “the” and obviously repetitive words (like “Petitioner” in this particular sentence), so the compound sentence would take this form: “Petitioner filed a motion for reconsideration but it was denied, so the recourse stated here was taken.”
(The change in voice is made from active voice in the first coordinate idea (“Petitioner filed a motion…”) to passive voice—a change normally disallowed in formal grammar—in the second coordinate idea linked by “so” (“the instant recourse was taken” instead of “the Petitioner took the recourse…”)
Then for stronger emphasis, the typical lawyer takes one last shortcut by replacing the very laymanly coordinating conjunction “so” with the lawyerly “hence.” This way, he or she produces the emphatic legalese that you presented, then splits the compound sentence into two (and thus avoiding use of a semicolon) for even greater emphasis:
“Petitioner filed a motion for reconsideration but was denied. Hence, the instant recourse.”You asked: Do the italicized words in the legalese above constitute a sentence or phrase? What kind of construction is it then?
No, Justine, strictly speaking, the italicized words “Hence, the instant recourse” as splintered from the first sentence isn’t a new sentence but a dangling phrase--a fragment. The typical English teacher will tell you that it seriously violates a cardinal rule for good sentence construction, but lawyers normally get away with such legalistic liberties with grammar with I suppose hardly any feeling any guilt at all.
