Apparently there is a plural version of the noun ‘feedback’ as the following example shows. I didn’t know that. Did you?
The remaining 45% had the potential to create either a one-way domino effect or mutually reinforcing feedbacks.
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Hi Torsten,
To me, feedback is an uncountable noun. I have not read or seen it used as a countable noun.
From which source did you get that sentence? Was it written by a native speaker?
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I came across the sentence in an article in The Guardian. It was written by Jonathan Watts who is the Guardian’s global environment editor.
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I think it’s a mistake.
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I’m not sure it’s a mistake since the following sentence contains the expression ‘the latter pairings’ which clearly refer to ‘mutually reinforcing feedbacks’ and in both cases the nouns are in the plural form.
‘Among the latter pairings were Arctic ice sheets and boreal forests’.
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I have seen it used only as a non-count noun, never pluralized. To quantify it we may say a lot of feedback.
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Apparently it is used in a scientific context where it has a technical meaning as in:
Additional experimentation illustrated how these effects amplified over time, resulting in greater primary producer biomass sediment chlorophyll a content (Chla) in the longer term, depending on climatic context and habitat factors affecting the strengths of mutually reinforcing feedbacks.
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Possible, Torsten. Our thinking often takes a strange and different turn!
Further, we also use PEOPLES to mean NATIONS.
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Here is another example of how the plural version ‘feedbacks’ is used:
Further tests showed the continued concentration of methane through the spring of 2021 despite the return of low temperatures and snow in the region.
Radical warming in Siberia leaves millions on unstable ground
“We would have expected elevated methane in areas with wetlands,” Froitzheim said. “But these were not over wetlands but on limestone outcrops. There is very little soil in these. It was really a surprising signal from hard rock, not wetlands.”
The carbonates in the outcroppings date back 541 million years to the Paleozoic era, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
“It’s intriguing. It’s not good news if it’s right,” said Robert Max Holmes, a senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center. “Nobody wants to see more potentially nasty feedbacks and this is potentially one.”
“What we do know with quite a lot of confidence is how much carbon is locked up in the permafrost. It’s a big number and as the Earth warms and permafrost thaws, that ancient organic matter is available to microbes for microbial processes and that releases CO2 and methane,” Holmes said. “If something in the Arctic is going to keep me up at night that’s still what it is.” But he said the paper warranted further study.
The geologists who wrote the report usually study things such as tectonic plate boundaries and the way those geologic plates fold over one another. But they have worked in the Arctic and that has piqued their interest.
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I don’t believe I’ve heard of the term feedbacks.
The writers seem to be emphasizing that the feedback they are referring to comes from several different sources and that these different feedbacks could interact, reinforcing each other.
By this logic:
“The Congressman received feedback from many of his constituents and from other Congressmen.”
“The feedbacks from his constituents and from the other Congressmen were at odds."
As to the original text, I would probably write “mutually reinforcing feedback from various different sources” which is also a bit more explicit in its meaning.
On the other hand, I didn’t really cringe when I read the originals.
I seem to remember a similar discussion here recently about a non-countable noun where there was a reference to several instances of it and in that case the noun was pluralized.
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I have never heard the word feedbacks until today, at least not that I can remember.
I did some digging and supposedly using feedback as a countable noun is becoming acceptable. I understand why, since feedback really can be counted.
However, countable does not mean the plural has an S. I can count deer and elk, but the plurals are deer and elk.
Now fish is another story. When I was a kid the plural of fish was fish. Then later, fishes became “acceptable”. Then it went back to fish. I don’t know who these people are who declare something acceptable, but fishes just sounds weird. Feedbacks sounds even more weird.
I can think of one case where it seems sort of OK.
Which sounds better to you?
James provided the first of many feedbacks.
James provided the first of many feedback.
There are other ways of saying this, but I think there is a point here. I’m also not sure if they ahve the same meaning.
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As far as I understand the usage of “feedbacks” is limited to the short form of “feedback loops”.
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As an electronics geek I’m familiar with feedback in electronics. Normally feedback is considered a system with a net feedback.
Feedback loops means that there are multiple parallel paths. While the components in those paths can be counted, and the paths can be counted, standard rules on parallel paths apply resulting in a single effective feedback.
I suppose it makes sense that feedbacks is a short form of feedback loops. But I’ve been around lots of electronic engineers and have never heard one say feedbacks. For that matter, I’m not sure if I’ve heard loops used either. Loop is usually an adjective, for example “loop current”.
Anyway, it’s really a matter of opinion. Some people seem to think “feedbacks” is OK. But to my ears it sounds really strange.
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Would you say that “inputs” is as rare and strange as “feedbacks”?
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When input means opinion I think it’s almost as strange.
When input means a type of connector on an electronic device like a stereo or television, then it doesn’t sound strange to me.
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I mean the context in this video at around 3:29:
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That sounds fine to me. The inputs are processed individually. You could almost substitute the word variables, which is basically what they are.
It would be cool to work on that robot. I wonder what kind of processing power it has. I only watched a short segment of it. I might watch the whole thing later. I’ve worked a little with vision systems. Even simple systems are not simple. It’s not an easy thing to do.
So when vision systems become susceptible to optical illusions, is that a step forward or a step back? It’s not too much different than what we see here with the dictation questions. As someone becomes more adept at English, the brain begins to fill in what they think it says and makes sense, instead of going strictly by what they hear. The people who are less adept at English don’t do that.
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Great video!
Inputs
I’ve commonly heard the term in my former job where we were receiving inputs (comments) from various sources to documents we were writing.
Regarding @NearlyNapping’s question:
Which sounds better to you?
James provided the first of many feedbacks.
James provided the first of many feedback.
The first sounds slightly better, but to my ear, feedbacks still feels out of place here since this sentence isn’t really treating the sources of feedback separately.
I see that input is several centuries older than feedback. I wonder if feedbacks will become more common over time.
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‘Feedbacks’ is a commonly used word among non-native English speakers, but it is considered a mistake. Based on the discussion above, my view is that ‘feedbacks’ is only correct in a specialist scientific/academic context when talking about the weather or climate. A layperson would never need to use it in this sense.
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Hi Jade, I agree with your assessment 100%. Thanks for your feedback 