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July 20, 2003my capitalization rulesIn my moving notice yesterday, Rory made reference to my odd rules for capitalization. As many folks know, my name does not have capital letters in it. When i was going through the process of changing my last name (and cementing the non-capitalization of my name), i did a lot of thinking about rules around capitalization in general. It always bothered me that "I" was a special case in english. Of course, i find it inherently indicative of the culture that we live in. Well, it bothered me enough that i decided that i didn't need any capital letters when i refer to myself. Not only is my name not capitalized, but i'm not that special. Plus, one of the main reasons to capitalize the letter was to typographically indicate it in a culture where everything was handwritten. In computer-land, it's easy enough to see it separate from the rest. Of course, i still believe in capitalizing certain things - those of importance and letters at the beginning of a sentence to indicate that a new sentence is about to begin. Wouldn't it be a bit funny though to start capitalizing You since i definitely believe that You is more important than i. Tehehe. I will refrain. Fact of the matter though is that my capitalization rules are just part of my quirks (except for that associated with my name, which are due to my mom's quirks). Category: reflections & rants
Posted by zephoria at July 20, 2003 12:36 PM
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Comments (8)
I suspected that your lower-case "i" might have had something to do with the implied self-importance of the whole thing.
Now, though, I want to know when this upper-case "I" thing started, and what the motivation was.
I mean, when did people start writing "I" in upper-case? In what other languages is this done? Whose idea was it, anyway?
And, why is it only I? Why don't we also go ahead with "Me" as long as we're going to make the effort?
I seriously want to know now.
Hm.
Posted by Rory | July 20, 2003 9:46 PM
Posted on July 20, 2003 21:46
Well said! I applaud you for a great explanation and an excellent website.
Posted by sarah | July 21, 2003 5:55 PM
Posted on July 21, 2003 17:55
Below is a link to the first message in a series of threads regarding capitalization on the "Ask A Linguist" list. I thought it might particularly interest the regular readers of danah's blog. Enjoy, everybody.
http://www.linguistlist.org/~ask-ling/archive-most-recent/msg03071.html
Posted by Andrew Cone | July 23, 2003 8:52 PM
Posted on July 23, 2003 20:52
Thanks, Andrew, that's an interesting list of responses. As others pointed out in that discussion, in German, all nouns are capitalized. In many other languages much fewer words are capitalized than in German or English.
To respond to danah's suggestion of capitalizing "you", I can offer an example of what's done in Hungarian (and probably other languages). In Hungarian, the formal version of "you" is capitalized out of respect. The whole point of formal language (as opposed to informal such as "tu" in French vs "vous" in French) is to be more respectful in some way, I guess. Some people do argue that the whole informal/formal distinction is tedious. Although I'm not about to suggest it's useless (I haven't thought about it enough to suggest that), it is a bit bothersome. It can lead to too many uncomfortable social situations when you're not sure which to use.
Okay, but I've gone a bit off-topic here. Point is, in Hungarian, very few things are capitalized (e.g. names of people, names of countries/cities), but little else.
Also off-topic but a linguistic issue perhaps of interest: Hungarian doesn't have gendered pronouns, there is no he vs she. I think that's interesting. (I'm afraid it's still a sexist society.)
Posted by eszter | August 2, 2003 3:08 PM
Posted on August 2, 2003 15:08
This is great. Thanks Andrew for the link. I am going to use the history as part of my capitalization lesson for my 8th graders tomorrow.
Posted by jennfier | September 15, 2003 9:56 PM
Posted on September 15, 2003 21:56
When I was kid, my teacher told the class that a person capitalizes the letter "I" because "You are all special." I raised my hand and questioned her: "Why don't we capitalize the "M" in "Me" then?" She told me to close my mouth.
Posted by L. Hill | September 25, 2003 6:52 AM
Posted on September 25, 2003 06:52
Today, our teach asked us to find out info on capitalization and I was to find out the rules so I could teach the class and I did so. And I know that you capitalize the first letter in a person and/or place's name. And the beginning of a sentence is a capital letter. Thax lol. peace
Posted by Kasey | October 31, 2003 6:04 AM
Posted on October 31, 2003 06:04
Today, our teach asked us to find out info on capitalization and I was to find out the rules so I could teach the class and I did so. And I know that you capitalize the first letter in a person and/or place's name. And the beginning of a sentence is a capital letter. Thax lol. peace
Posted by Kasey | October 31, 2003 6:04 AM
Posted on October 31, 2003 06:04