Judy:
>Capitalizing every word can be considered "style" in only the most superficial sense. It is easily interpreted as an affectation.<
How about some historical considerations?
From "The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language", by David Crystal, page 67:
"Hart recommended his readers to use a capital letter at the beginning of every sentence, proper name, and important common noun... But the 17th century, the practice had extended to titles, forms of address, and personified nouns (Nature). Emphasized words and phrases would also attract a capital. By the beginning of the 18th century, the influence of Continental books had caused this practice to be extended still further, and it was not long before some writers began using a capital for any noun that they felt to be important. Books appeared in which all or most nouns were given an initial capital ( as is done systematically in modern German )- perhaps for AESTHETIC REASONS, or perhaps because printers were uncertain about which nouns to capitalized, and so capitalized them all... However, the later 18th-century grammarians were not amused by this apparent lack of order and discipline in the written language..."
Now, this is funny ( pay special attention to this punctuation, btw ):
"The American statesman and scientist, Benjamin Franklin (1706-90), had a keen interest in the English language... In a letter to Noah Webster, written in 1789, he mourns the passing of the age of noun capitalization. 'In examining the English books that were printed between the restoration and the accession of George the Second (1660-1727), we may observe, that all substantives were begun with a capital, in which we imitated our mother tongue, the German. This was more particularly useful to those who were not well acquainted with the English, there being such a prodigious number of our words that are both verbs and substantives, and spelt in the same manner, though often accented differently in pronunciation. This method has, by the fancy of printers, of late years been entirely laid aside; from an idea, that suppressing the capitals shews the character to greater advantage; those letters, prominent above the line, disturbing its even, regular appearance. The effect of this change is so considerable, that a learned man of France, who used to read our books, though not perfectly acquainted with our language, in conversation with me on the subject of our authors, attributed the greater obscurity he found in our modern books, compared with those of the period above mentioned, to a change of style FOR THE WORSE IN OUR WRITERS...This shews the inconvenience of that pretended improvement'."
> It's like all of the little curlicues and hearts or smiley faces instead of dots over an "i" that teenage girls use. Once you're past about 15, it starts looking very silly. If you want to be taken seriously in adult company, I wouldn't recommend it.<
I had a teacher in junior high who had students who used small circles instead of dots over their 'is' and 'js' fill them all with their pens so they would think twice before doing that again. That worked!
Caio
|
| |