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orthography

English translation: From Bartleby.com:

11:46 Jan 17, 2004
English language (monolingual) [Non-PRO]
English term or phrase: orthography
When do you write nouns in capital letters in English?
Please make examples.

Thank you
Brialex
Italy
Local time: 17:05
Selected answer:From Bartleby.com:
Explanation:
CAPITALS, CAPITAL LETTERS, CAPITALIZATION

Capital letters are an important part of English spelling. Generally speaking, English capitalizes the first letter of the first word in a sentence, as in Summer is my favorite season, the pronoun I and usually the pronouns whose referent is the Deity, as in Praise Him, and all proper nouns, such as the names of people, places, events, titles of literary and other artistic works, and the like (as in Frederick S. Smith, Akron, Ohio, the Fourth of July, Pride and Prejudice, etc.), and the adjectives and nouns in proper names that are in phrase form as in International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union. But note that in titles of literary and other artistic works, usually articles, conjunctions, and prepositions are not capitalized unless they are the first words in those titles: Pride and Prejudice, Of Human Bondage, The Mill on the Floss. Since the details of capitalization required to meet the style of a given press or publication may sometimes be idiosyncratic, you should consult a desk dictionary or your publisher’s manual of style.


UP STYLE, DOWN STYLE

An up style of capitalization (and to some minds punctuation as well) tends to use a good deal of each; a down style uses as little of each as possible. In an up style, both Elm and Street are capitalized: Elm Street; a down style capitalizes only Elm: Elm street. An up style punctuates a series thus: a dog, a cat, and a duck; a down style does it: a dog, a cat and a duck. If your words are intended for print, find out which style your publisher prefers and adhere to it.
Selected response from:

Nikita Kobrin
Lithuania
Local time: 18:05
Grading comment
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
4 +13From Bartleby.com:
Nikita Kobrin
5 +1...
Alex Zelkind (X)
5proper nouns such as cities,countries,monuments,names,nationalities,streets,mountains,islands.
mardes (X)
3Capitalization
rene_teews


Discussion entries: 1





  

Answers


6 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
Capitalization


Explanation:
All in caps or just capitalized?

Give US an example too!
Grazie


    Reference: http://leader.linkexchange.com/1/X1487126/showiframe?
    Reference: http://www.dowlingcentral.com/MrsD/area/grammar/Rules/Capita...
rene_teews
Local time: 08:05
Native speaker of: Native in FrenchFrench
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7 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +1
...


Explanation:
Proper nouns, proper names, abbreviations.
However, you can do it whenever you feel like it, just like in most of the languages. When you write poetry you can start every word with capital letters.
Rules are made to be broken, they change with time. People change them. If they want to. Some don't want to change the rules. They think that language is dogma.
Saludos.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2004-01-17 12:30:18 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

To Charlie

...than some old professor of English who worries to much about rules and because of that his language is dry and unexpressing.
Maupassant, Hugo, Dostoevsky and many others were all called \"illiterate\", but we read THEM and not the \"proper\" ones :)

Alex Zelkind (X)
Native speaker of: Native in RussianRussian
PRO pts in pair: 18

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Rajan Chopra
3 mins
  -> Merci :)
neutral  gianfranco: You can break the rules in creative writing but not in formal writing, documents, etc..., and then, even to break the rules you need to know them in the first place... :-)
12 mins
  -> Lope de Vega said that Servantes did not know the rules of Spanish. Maybe that's why "Don Quijote" is the most beautiful piece of Spanish literature... :)
neutral  Charlie Bavington: Up to a point. For technical, business or formal writing, it's best to stick to the 'rules', IMO, especially for a non-EMT person. However, for creative writing, then up to a point, I'd agree it can be a Good Thing.
14 mins
  -> I agree with you and Gianfranco, but isn't it an interesting fact that many of the most wonderful poems and novels were written by men who hardly new "proper" rules of the language. Isn't it surprising that some peasant's son may be more exciting to read
neutral  Lesley Clarke: Rules were made to be broken but, there they also have their purpose. If a document is full of spelling mistakes for instance, it completely throws and distracts the reader, likewise strange capitalizations could inadvertently have the same effect.
2 hrs
  -> French, Spanish, Italian and other languages were initialy vulgar jargons of Latin. Not too many people could master Latin, so they spoke the "soldier's version" of that language. Do you see my point? :)
neutral  Chris Rowson (X): In creative writing you can be creative, but in many spheres it just looks wrong.
5 hrs
  -> In some languages there is no capitalization of letters at all (in Hebrew, for example), but people perfectly understand everything. There are many "rules" in English which are archaic and useless. Languages have to be simplified. Otherwise they die :)
neutral  Refugio: Are you saying that you believe Brianti's concern for correct usage makes her a dogmatic perpetrator of dry and unexpressive language? Or perhaps you are just holding yourself up as a modern-day Dostoevsky. Where may we read your works?
8 hrs
  -> No comment :)
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7 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +13
From Bartleby.com:


Explanation:
CAPITALS, CAPITAL LETTERS, CAPITALIZATION

Capital letters are an important part of English spelling. Generally speaking, English capitalizes the first letter of the first word in a sentence, as in Summer is my favorite season, the pronoun I and usually the pronouns whose referent is the Deity, as in Praise Him, and all proper nouns, such as the names of people, places, events, titles of literary and other artistic works, and the like (as in Frederick S. Smith, Akron, Ohio, the Fourth of July, Pride and Prejudice, etc.), and the adjectives and nouns in proper names that are in phrase form as in International Ladies Garment Workers’ Union. But note that in titles of literary and other artistic works, usually articles, conjunctions, and prepositions are not capitalized unless they are the first words in those titles: Pride and Prejudice, Of Human Bondage, The Mill on the Floss. Since the details of capitalization required to meet the style of a given press or publication may sometimes be idiosyncratic, you should consult a desk dictionary or your publisher’s manual of style.


UP STYLE, DOWN STYLE

An up style of capitalization (and to some minds punctuation as well) tends to use a good deal of each; a down style uses as little of each as possible. In an up style, both Elm and Street are capitalized: Elm Street; a down style capitalizes only Elm: Elm street. An up style punctuates a series thus: a dog, a cat, and a duck; a down style does it: a dog, a cat and a duck. If your words are intended for print, find out which style your publisher prefers and adhere to it.



    Reference: http://www.bartleby.com/68/22/1122.html
Nikita Kobrin
Lithuania
Local time: 18:05
Native speaker of: Native in RussianRussian
PRO pts in pair: 35

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Iolanta Vlaykova Paneva
2 hrs
agree  Kim Metzger: You can't do it "whenever you feel like it" in formal writing. For all the rules you need a style guide. Here's one: http://www.utexas.edu/visualguidelines/capitalization.html
3 hrs
agree  Chris Rowson (X): BE is slightly different, though, e.g. "street" will normally be part of the street name, so it has to "Elm Street". We don´t say just "Elm", always "Elm Street", so it´s basically always capitalised. Also the commas rule is different ...
5 hrs
agree  Empty Whiskey Glass
5 hrs
agree  luzba
6 hrs
agree  Refugio
8 hrs
agree  melayujati
11 hrs
agree  Rajan Chopra
18 hrs
agree  cmwilliams (X)
1 day 37 mins
agree  Annamaria Leone
1 day 1 hr
agree  Krisztina Lelik
1 day 2 hrs
agree  Nado2002
1 day 3 hrs
agree  senin
1 day 20 hrs
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11 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5
proper nouns such as cities,countries,monuments,names,nationalities,streets,mountains,islands.


Explanation:
We also write Mum and Dad.
Examples:Mary, the Acropolis, Canada, Everest, Crete, Athens, Bond str, the Hilton, the Dutch,, the Pacific etc

mardes (X)
Local time: 18:05
Native speaker of: Native in GreekGreek
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