The Borg *is* everywhere...?

[Nakita Akita]

But Data isn't a word it a name. So it doesn't change it context of a sentence.
His name was never Datum.

 

[Six of Twelve]

I always use singular for nouns that talk about a unit: family, company, etc. As in:

My family is going to a restaurant.

Both families are going to the concert.

This is because you're talking about the unit known as a family, not about the individuals contained within by their numbers. One family, singular. Two families, plural. It's the unit, not the number of individuals contained within.

 

[DonIago]

Given that the OP hasn't chimed in here in a few days I suspect they may have opted-out of the thread, but I tend to agree. "The Borg is everywhere," seems technically correct on the grounds that they are ultimately a singular entity.

What could screw things up is the ambiguity regarding whether they're being referred to as a species or the individuals that comprise them.

 

[Leviathan]

No. ELVIS is everywhere!

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[JesterFace]

Isn't the Borg basically a one big being? Can it even be said that the Borg are doing something... I guess not.

Drones are like hemoglobin or some other thing in our blood floating around the universe.

 

[Emperor Norton]

The Borg is one character. At least in the vernacular of that season.

 

[Tim Thomason]

This just confuses the issue when Data is seen in multiple displaced places in Schizoid Man - If the word Data is plural, what's the plural of the proper noun Data? "Datas"? "Look at all those Datas"? That's like saying "Hobbitses."

The plural of Data is Datas, as determined by the episode "A Fistful of Datas", and in-universe by Riker in "Datalore", and by Guinan and Picard in "The Measure of a Man". Data did no object the two times he heard it.

Riker: How many more Datas are there?

Guinan: Then this should work out fine. Maddox could get lucky and create a whole army of Datas, all very valuable.

Guinan: Well, consider that in the history of many worlds there have always been disposable creatures. They do the dirty work. They do the work that no one else wants to do because it's too difficult, or too hazardous. And an army of Datas, all disposable, you don't have to think about their welfare, you don't think about how they feel. Whole generations of disposable people.

Picard: A single Data, and forgive me, Commander, is a curiosity. A wonder, even. But thousands of Datas. Isn't that becoming a race? And won't we be judged by how we treat that race? Now, tell me, Commander, what is Data?

 

[φ of π]

You say "there is the beehive" not "there are the beehive".

 

[Mojochi]

"The data is compiling" is perfectly acceptable grammar. It's actually much more common in modern vernacular than saying... "The data are compiling".

Besides... it's a name, not a noun. O'Brien's first name is also a plural word, but no one would say... "Are Miles ok?", despite being grammatically correct for the pluralized word miles. We'd say... "Is Miles ok?" because it's a proper name for one individual, & if there DID happen to be more than one Miles, in some strange dimensional anomaly (Not out of the question for Star Trek) We might have to refer to them as Mileses, or in the actual case of the Manheim effect in We'll Always Have Paris, there were three different Datas

As for "The Borg is everywhere", I'd say that the term can also be applied in that way. Does anyone ever refer to them as Borgs? The collective is a unit, (Unlike deer) The collective is everywhere. The collective is the Borg. The Borg is everywhere. If anything, I'm more comfortable with that usage than The Borg are everywhere

 

[F. King Daniel]

BORG UNIVERSE RIKER: The Borg is everywhere!

PEDANTIC UNIVERSE PICARD: Ackchyually...

 

[φ of π]

The swarm is everywhere.

 

[Tim Thomason]

Does anyone ever refer to them as Borgs?

Once, in "Infinite Regress". Seven of Nine, possessed by the personality of Maryl, a young girl, says "I hate Borgs." The grammar is intended to be childish and incorrect.

 

[E-DUB]

The Borg is back, and there's going to be trouble. (Hey, na. Hey, na.)

 

[woodstock]

I always called them Borgs, you know, like beers.

 

[scotpens]

O'Brien's first name is also a plural word, but no one would say... "Are Miles ok?", despite being grammatically correct for the pluralized word miles.

Except that the name Miles has no direct connection with the plural noun "miles" as in units of distance. The name derives from the Germanic name Milo, introduced by the Normans to England in the form Miles. The measurement unit known as the mile originated from the Roman mille passus, or “a thousand paces.”

 

[Twilight Phoenix]

I didn't see S7 yet, but from what I understood, the Borg seems to be rather like a hive with a collective consciousness, than a group of different individualities. So I guess both plural and singular can be used. For a bee hive, we can use singular (the hive is...) as well as plural (the bees are...). BTW, isn't the Borg Queen the only one to control all the Borg minions ? That would make her THE Borg, right ? Not one of them, but all of them at once.

 

[DonIago]

I still wish the Queen had simply been an avatar of the collective consciousness rather than apparently some free-willed entity of its own.

Then again, I wish when Janeway had encountered her that she'd instead met a Borg King.

...perhaps the Borg know something about Janeway that wasn't made explicitly clear during the series?

 

[velour]

I didn't see S7 yet, but from what I understood, the Borg seems to be rather like a hive with a collective consciousness, than a group of different individualities. So I guess both plural and singular can be used. For a bee hive, we can use singular (the hive is...) as well as plural (the bees are...). BTW, isn't the Borg Queen the only one to control all the Borg minions ? That would make her THE Borg, right ? Not one of them, but all of them at once.

I guess you can say the Borg Queen is THE Borg, in the same sense as when Louis XIV of France declared "L'état, c'est moi."

What about Hugh and other like-minded Borg(s)? When Lore first encountered Hugh and his crew, did Lore greet them as, "hello, Borgs"?, after all Hugh and his gang of Borg(s) had become individualized. Could they be referred to as a gang or band of Borgs?

 

[Twilight Phoenix]

@velour : I watched I Borg for the first time today, so I'll be able to discuss the matter a bit more in depth now

My opinion is that "The Borg" is the collective entity as a beehive system, with a collective conscience ; whereas a borg would be only an individualized exception like Hugh is.
As Hugh developed singularity and self-awareness during the time he was disconnected from the collective, he separated from "The Borg" to become a borg. I don't know it makes sense the way I write it...
What I mean is that individualized borgs are exceptions and wouldn't be considered to be part of The Borg anymore. So maybe it'd have been a good idea to give them another name to clearly separate them from the rest of The Borg.

 

[velour]

I see your point.

When Hugh's link to the collective conscientiousness was severed, I get that Hugh was no longer part of "The Borg". But even then, wasn't Hugh still of the Borg "species"? I realize Hugh might have been some other species before he was assimilated.

I suppose he could be called "Hugh, formerly of The Borg", but that is too cumbersome and inelegant (as well as sounding like a former band member who had gone solo). Maybe you're right, somebody should come up with a name to describe those drones who had achieved self conscientiousness and been cast out of The Borg.

 

[JesterFace]

somebody should come up with a name to describe those drones who had achieved self conscientiousness and been cast out of The Borg.

How about Grob, Borg spelled backwards.
Individual Borg is a backward Borg, out of the hive mind.