Data and Contractions

[Takara_Soong 4]

VBG posted the following in a thread on the Voyager board that got me thinking. He said:

 

Am I the only one that notices things like this? I also watched "In Theory" (TNG) and in it Data says "Can't" instead of Can Not.

 

I know, nit picking but I notice those thing.

 

Do you notice when Data uses a contraction? I can think of a few times when he did - like the scenes in the holodeck police station in The Big Goodbye or another one in In Theory when he says "Honey I'm home". I have read that sometimes Brent Spiner would use a contraction when he shouldn't have and there were times when the writers wrote Data's dialogue with contractions when they shouldn't have. I am really amazed that it didn't happen more often since contractions are so basic to the English language.

 

Do you think you could have a conversation with someone without using a contraction. I couldn't even type this post without using them.

[dsbs 0]

I am sure i could if I talked really really really slowly (actually, I can't talk really slowly, so no...i don't think I could, lol....But if you want, you can say that he didn't use a contraction, he just said the two words really fast...hahaha, ok ok.)

[Lessa_Soong 0]

I could do it. But i have had practice.

I have the "Honey, I'm home," as the wave that comes on when i turn on my computer. I think of that one as Data sounds like he is quoting someone or quoting the typical line that a husband would use when he came home. I think in quoting Data can use them...or at least that is an excuse. It may not work for all the times that we hear him doing it, though.

Still i think it adds to his charm.

[Celtic_Swimmer 0]

well i do not think meny people can talk without contractions its just something that is like built into us :S ..

well anyways in "Future Imperfect" the way Riker finds out everything is fake is cuz Data says Can't.. so yeah.. i dunno.. just thought i'd add this in

[Stelfan 0]

Couldn't just be that Data is trying to be more human?

 

not that it doesn't irritate me a bit to, since he says in Datalore, that the difference between them is that he does not use contractions. And if he is supposed to be a machine, that should always be the case. Unless he is quoting someone, that is.

[Takara_Soong 4]

Data is an android but Brent Spiner is very human - slip ups do occur.

[Data 0]

As the show progressed Data became more and more human. He even started to sleep and have dreams.

[Lessa_Soong 0]

True, but all were still programming. He found a dream program that was intended to come out once he grew far enough. But it has been theorized that the chip may have effected his ability to use contractions...but i'm not sure that would work.

[trekkergirl220 0]

I always use contractions. If I really try I could, but even typing without them is hard! I don't remember seeing data accidently use a contaction, but I don't know, maybe I just haven't seen the episode where he does that. Although I have noticed makeup messups, though that could be that I'm just a visual person, Its more likely that i would notice things that I see, more than I hear.

[dsbs 0]

YOu have to pay really really REALLY close attention, and repeat what he just said in your head. A lot of words sound like contractions, but they're not, and vise-versa, so it's a little difficult to hear sometimes. Other times you just happen to be listening in the right spot.

[A l t e r E g o 9]

I need to practice using contractions more often, I read an older post of mine and I think, what the hell did I say?

[master_q 0]

There have been a few silly mistakes by the writers where Data uses contractions, but nothing is perfect.

 

 

I also always wondered why Data would have problems actually understanding and applying contractions.

 

"It's"= It is

Just a different kind of variable

(Just don't use "it's" for a something that you could not say -it is- and only its to make sure it makes sense then just say its or in another words "it's" is a contraction meaning "it is"

 

example

It's time for the jury to sate its verdict.

"It's" is a contraction

"its" is a possessive pronoun)

 

And many contractions are actually formed by combining an auxiliary verb with a pronoun or the word not (I’ll, don’t, . . .). In a case like this you have to break the contraction in order to identify which part is the verb (I’ll = I will, don’t = do not)

 

Besides all the technical details I would say the real reason was to show limitations not only in humanity but in machines the machines that we create. In real life I don't see a advanced creation like Data to have a limitation like this, but like I said it is to show limitation. (Which is part of ST to show all forms)

 

 

Like I said it is not that believable to have someone like Data not understand contractions. Of coruse other limitations Data has is believable (lack of emotions / . . . . .).

 

 

Contractions are very logical and I don't know why Data would not understand them. If he did not understand something like contractions how could he really understand sentence structure. Simple sentences, compound, complex, compound-complex, progressive forms, independent clauses, subordinate clauses, . . . .. and all of the other things.

 

My self personally I never liked grammar . . . when will I ever need to find an appositive phrase or a subordinate clause in a sentence? (Of course it can make your sentences better and you can avoid errors and so on, but...) And as you can tell I usually ignore all of the technical grammar here (and probably the fact that I’m not the best at it)

 

 

What does everyone else think about the fact that Data in relaity could understand contractions?

 

 

Master Q

StarTrek_Master_Q@yahoo.com

[dsbs 0]

I think it was to really separate him from everyone else. Give him something he couldn't do, and to strive towards (as everyone knows he pretty much had emotions Ok, don't want to start another argument here, just pointing out that they needed something other than that)

[master_q 0]

I think it was to really separate him from everyone else. Give him something he couldn't do, and to strive towards (as everyone knows he pretty much had emotions Ok, don't want to start another argument here, just pointing out that they needed something other than that)

Well I know that

 

I’m just saying in an overall sense in reality and not just for TNG to show Data has “limitations” and having him evolve (as I have stated in my last reply)

 

So I agree with you there please don’t take me wrong

 

However, I think that in reality it is not that realistic that someone like Data would have a limitation like this. Do you agree with that dsbs?

 

 

Master Q

StarTrek_Master_Q@yahoo.com

[Lessa_Soong 0]

I never thought it was that he could not understand contractions, but that he was programmed not to use them. I guess i thought of it as being programmed to use a more formalized form of speech. Something to distinguish him from Lore and his brothers more casual form of speech.

[master_q 0]

I never thought it was that he could not understand contractions, but that he was programmed not to use them. I guess i thought of it as being programmed to use a more formalized form of speech. Something to distinguish him from Lore and his brothers more casual form of speech.

Well I can see that, but to distinguish between them using just the pattern of contractions does not seem like a big deal or some kind of real reason to program him for not using contractions

 

I can see your reasoning there, but that still seems kind of unbalanced or not in an complete equilibrium state

 

But the idea that he was programmed that way is a interesting point (in general terms)

 

 

Master Q

StarTrek_Master_Q@yahoo.com

[dsbs 0]

I think it was to really separate him from everyone else. Give him something he couldn't do, and to strive towards (as everyone knows he pretty much had emotions Ok, don't want to start another argument here, just pointing out that they needed something other than that)

Well I know that

 

I’m just saying in an overall sense in reality and not just for TNG to show Data has “limitations” and having him evolve (as I have stated in my last reply)

 

So I agree with you there please don’t take me wrong

 

However, I think that in reality it is not that realistic that someone like Data would have a limitation like this. Do you agree with that dsbs?

 

 

Master Q

StarTrek_Master_Q@yahoo.com

Oh I agree with that! I wasn't arguing...I must have missed that part in your post, is all.

 

I don't think that it would have been SO hard for someone as obviously brilliant as Dr Soong to install one little code that would have given him the option of using contractions.

 

oh well, it was cute, though. (and this is why you should never mention Data in my presence)

[Yillara Skye 1]

Yes, I noticed that he would use a contraction, when he kept saying that he could not. But, I would usually ignore that slip up, since I pretty much figured it was a slip up on either Brent or the writer's part. It didn't really matter too much in my mind.

[Data 0]

Takara, that avatar of yours is cracking me up. When Data and the ship's computer combine all hell breaks loose.

[Takara_Soong 4]

Takara, that avatar of yours is  cracking me up. When Data and the ship's computer combine all hell breaks loose.

Thanks. And thanks to UhuraRiker for sending it to me. I had to change it to a different on now - one of my poor sisters was going blind from it.

 

Note: It was a Data Annie avatar.

[Lessa_Soong 0]

I had to change it to a different on now - one of my poor sisters was going blind from it. 

 

Ah, i can see again!

 

I know that some of the contractions were "pilot error" but i still think that it was just another way that Soong used to cause the others on Omicron Theta to be less frightened of Data as they were of Lore. Lore was comfortable with slang, emotions and much of how we act. Data was clueless in so many of these areas and that made him easier to accept, less of a threat. For Lore it must have been easy to use his knowledge and abilities to show up the humans around him. He was smarter, stronger and faster. Data had so many gaps and could not ever speak with the scarcasm that Lore must have used like a cloak. In other wards, there was a method to his madness.

[Yillara Skye 1]

I agree Lessa! There must have been a method to the madness. I think that is an ingeneous way to separate the brothers...

[dsbs 0]

Takara, that avatar of yours is  cracking me up. When Data and the ship's computer combine all hell breaks loose.

Thanks. And thanks to UhuraRiker for sending it to me. I had to change it to a different on now - one of my poor sisters was going blind from it.

 

Note: It was a Data Annie avatar.

what??? right now, its a pic from the episode brothers...

[Yillara Skye 1]

Nope, her avatar is a pic of him as Annie....we all know she is doing this on purpose! Unless she changed it again as I am writing this!

[dsbs 0]

I think she must have,,,I'm going dizzy here...

[Yillara Skye 1]

Hey, at least THIS time I haven't ran screaming from the computer!

[dsbs 0]

lol! It's not THAT bad...

[Yillara Skye 1]

I know, but I run screaming, so I don't fall off my chair laughing again, like I did the first time she posted that picture!