Why do people randomly capitalise words?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I am not really sure how to describe this, but many people have this infuriating (to my grammar nazi self anyway) way of capitalising random words they write. For example they might write “My name is John. I live in a Large house in Rosewater. I have a Dog and a budgie. I used to have a Sister too but my dog Ate her. I like cookies.”

I have to ask… WHY? Why must you capitalise those words? What is so special about them? Is your house so large it needs to be referred to as “Large”? Is a “Dog” actually a code name for a live-in cleaner from a cannibal tribe of South America? :confused:

2

I Like cookies too. But My dog doesn’t.

I lied I don’t Have a dog.

3

Oops. Submit too fast…

When I read that I think that the writer is asking for emphasis on that word. As if you’d normally underline, or bold it, but they just capitalize it.

4

Well, since you’re asking for humble opinions on this intriguing topic, mine would be that, depending on circumstance, such capitalizations can come from:

  1. rank ignorance
  2. deliberate messing with your mind
  3. a desire to emphasize certain words without going to any more trouble than the barest minimum, foregoing such things as bolding or italicizing or even using asterisks to set off those “important” words
  4. the desire to emulate old English or even German where some words are capitalized out of adherence to some older rules
  5. bad typing skills
  6. dyslexia
  7. psychosis
  8. sexual perversion
  9. excessive zeal brought on by sitting too near a TV set

There may be other reasons, too. One could go mad trying to find such answers.
Good luck!

5

I’ve wondered that too. I think 1) rank ingnorance is probably the best answer. Those people areusually the Same ones who put apostrophes in the wrong place’s.

6

Or who Forget to use the space bar. :smack:

7

Oops. Submit too fast…

When I read that I think that the writer is asking for emphasis on that word. As if you’d normally underline, or bold it, but they just capitalize it.

8

Or double post.

9

Penis Ensues.

10

It was very popular in 1920s fiction. When I see it now, it makes me think of Jeeves and Wooster: “What you did was a Very Good Thing, Jeeves my Old Chum. Now we shall take The Charabanc back to the Manor House.”

11

I hAve nO idEa whaT yoU’re TalKing aboUt.

12

Ah, 1920’s “Death Fiction.”

13

I do this when I follow the mode of Victorian writers. For example, some of them wanted to discuss via their novels, Truth and Love. Meaning, the concepts of truth and love.

It is a way of emphasizing and also underscoring a more subtle meaning in certain words. Another example: drunk college students late at noc in dorms often talk bout Life.

And, there is rank ignorance, as said above.

14

We had a programmer where I work who habitually capitalized the first letter of random words. I couldn’t find any pattern to it; nouns, pronouns, verbs . . . they were all fair game. I told him specifically to capitalize only the first letter of the first first word in a sentence, not to even worry about proper nouns (I didn’t want to confuse him). And he’d still do it.

I honestly think it was some sort of dysleksia-type thing, that the difference betwen upper case and lower case was a mystery to him.

15

I think they do it because they hate me. Seriously. I work for a newspaper and I see this way more often than I care to admit because it pains me that people can be so stupid. Most of the time people do it for emphasis, and most of the time it isn’t needed. For example, if someone is advertising an open house baby shower, they’ll write Open House Baby Shower. None of these words need to be, or should be, capitalized, IMO.
Quotations are just as bad. People who like to over-use quotations would write: “open house” baby shower, or even better, “Open House” Baby Shower. That’s just great.

16

I love it when people put notices up like:

“Free” gift with every purchase.

And I’m all like :dubious:

17

I always found that normal military jargon has very weird “rules” about capital letters. After years of military indoctrination I found it a difficult habit to break. Add to that years of writing police reports in all capital block letters. All the reports are on computer now so I don’t have to do that any more.

18

That is a good one. Makes you wonder what the catch is, doesn’t it? I guess the catch is that it’s “free,” not just free, because you have to purchase something to get it.

19

It’s not an unusual style of emphasis in a software context. Hacks aren’t bad and wrong; rather they’re Bad and Wrong (the opposite of Right and Good). There are only a few common phrases, and they’re all rather specific, so it seems unlikely that those are what you’re using.

Personally, I use capitalization and asterisks to denote differences in the way I would speak something. If I say that something is a Very Good Thing, read that section with a strong emphasis on the words and pauses in between them. If I say that it’s a very good thing, read that with strong emphasis on the words but at a normal speed. If I say that it’s a very good thing, read that as above but with a less strong emphasis.

20

I am guilty of this. When I write software I will capitalize the variables in ways that I hope make my code more readable. Many people prefer underscores or small variable names. I would write SectionNumber. Someone else might write section_number. Someone else my write sn. I hate the underscores primarily because it is one of the keys I have trouble touch-typing.

Anyway, I often find that I do it when I’m writing other things - even though there is now a space in between section and number, the habit is ingrained.