Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2020 March 19

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March 19

AU English capitalization

I notice in informally written Australian English, the writers sometimes randomly capitalize Nouns like I did just now. Unlike in German, they don't do it uniformly. I can't quite tell if there is a pattern. Does anyone know if there are grammatical conventions involved? Thanks. 2601:648:8202:96B0:386A:A40C:EBB1:ACC0 (talk) 19:27, 19 March 2020 (UTC)

No conventions. Just wilfully ignorant people who chose not to pay attention in school. Plus the linguistic disaster that is social media. HiLo48 (talk) 21:49, 19 March 2020 (UTC)

One genuine convention is that we (or at least I) spell it capitaliSe. HiLo48 (talk) 21:49, 19 March 2020 (UTC)

I always thought it was to emphasise the noun to show that it is really important. --Tenryuu ² ( ¬ o Contributions/Tenryuu) 22:21, 19 March 2020 (UTC)

I don't know if this is what the OP is talking about (and I don't know anything about Australian English), but I quite often see certain nouns capitalised in a religious of philosophical context, to imply not just that this thing is "really important", but that they are talking about some sort of fundamentally special meaning. (Excessive use of this convention generally sets off my crank-alarm. Especially when I see people talking about Truth, because unlike regular, uncapitalised truth, which means "things that are factually correct", capitalised Truth seems to mean "pseudo-profound assertion made without evidence"). This usage seems common enough that I expect there is a term for it. Iapetus (talk) 11:41, 20 March 2020 (UTC)

Words like that are capitalized because they are considered to be proper nouns in context. I think most people who do it on a regular basis feel the urge to slightly emphasize, but it is poor style. Reminds me of Trump's tweets. Jmar67 (talk) 13:34, 20 March 2020 (UTC)

2601:648:8202:96B0:386A:A40C:EBB1:ACC0 -- sporadic noun capitalization was pretty much normal during much of the 18th century, and in hand-written manuscripts through at least the first half of the 19th century. We have an article Capitalization in English... AnonMoos (talk) 23:53, 19 March 2020 (UTC)

There should be some sort of penalty for such transgressions. Clarityfiend (talk) 06:00, 20 March 2020 (UTC)

Clarityfiend, get out. :P Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝) 06:13, 20 March 2020 (UTC)