(Note: I had typed this in response to a post in a thread—now lost—at the exact moment this board went down in February. When it wouldn’t post, I saved it and have been saving it waiting for the board to go back up. Scott Dickerson had recommended that we always capitalize common nouns like “president” because they’re capitalized in the Constitution.)
Mr. SCOTT DICKERSON, you are quite right, good Sir: that in the Eighteenth Century, all Nouns were capitalized; in these States, and in other Countries, that used the English Language. If in your esteemed Judgement, we are to follow the Usage of the Style, which obtained at the Founding, of this Nation; then to this noble & august Purpose, let us subscribe our Hands, forthwith.
Not all 18th century prose used capitalisation like that.
For an example, try Gibbons The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire*, which reads surprisingly well.
There are certain clues that it’s more than 200 years old, such as ‘an usefull…’ and citing ‘incontinence’ among the mortal sins.
OK, he does capitalise the title, but unless the editor has touched things up, in the text very few nouns are capitalised. **
** Oh NOOOO!! What has happened to the [sup ][/sup ] tags? Now how will we handle scientific notation?
To continue in this Vein: That there may have come to your Attention, Sir, some report of the recent Investigations, of natural Philosophy, into the physickal Nature of Lightning; conducted by Mr. BENJMN. FRANKLIN, of Philadelphia: to wit, that its effective Principle, is a Fluid; and the Speculation, that one day this Fluid may be so employed, as to send Missives in a Manner yet more speedy & velocitous, than even that of mounted Courier: whilst the learned Savants of London & Paris, do dismiss all such Phantasies, as mere Folly & idle Japery; fit only for the phantastickal Tales of a Baron MUNCHAUSEN, or the Deliriums of the Turke, lolling on Oriental Cushions in the Seraglio of Constantinople, in indolent Dreams of Haschisch.
Sir;
As to the Possibility of Communication by this ætheral Fluid, it is prima facie impossible, as these Charlatans must indeed themselves know, if any pretense to Learning they make. If we contrived to communicate thus, the Æther would soon be thick with the Miasma of our Writing and we would retard the Earth’s proper Motion.
I wish it could be described rather than just imitated --well.
It seems to me that the style got less florid towards the end of the century, though. Excerpts from the Spectotor in the early part of the Century seem more like Jomo’;s than later things.
FWIW, in German all nouns are capitalized. Perhaps this is where the tendencyt to do so in those days came from?
That, I would have to say, is the most frequent General Question of all.
The original question was in a thread that was lost on February 11. It was something like: Are we supposed to capitalize common nouns like “president,” or not? Scott Dickerson said they should be capitalized because they’re like that in the Constitution. I had just contrived this witty answer when at that exact instant the board went blooey for the next 4 weeks. But I saved my post waiting to add it to the thread. Alas! The thread is annihilated! What should I do with the post I’d been saving?
JCHeckler—Good question. Britain was being ruled by German kings when they were capitalizing all the Nouns. Coincidence?
Yes, because if you look at older (pre-Hanoverian) texts, it happens there too, though not uniformly.
Actually, I’m looking at an old-spelling edition of Thomas Nashe’s Pierce Pennilesse His Supplication to the Divell (published 1592) and a lot of the nouns are capitalized there, though not all of them:
“Our Players are not as the players beyond sea, a sort of squirting baudie Comedians, that haue whores and common Curtizens to playe womens partes, and forbeare no immodest speech, or vnchast action that may procure laughter, but our Sceane is more statelye furnisht than euer it was in the time of Roscius, our representations honourable, and full of gallant resolution, not consisting like theirs of a Pantaloun, a Whore, and a Zanie, but of Emperours, Kings and Princes: whose true Tragedies (Sophocleo cothurno) they do vaunt.”
I think it’s for emphasis more than anything else (which is why, if you’re trying to act Shakespeare, it helps sometimes to look at an old-spelling edition and see which words are capitalized).
But then, if spelling was inconsistent, why should we expect consistent capitalization?
IIRC, titles like “president”, “senator”, and even “mom” and “dad” should be capitalized if used as a proper noun but should not be capitalized if used as a common noun. For example: “The President is taking a different course of action than previous presidents,” “Senator Condit will no longer be a senator after the current term,” or “My Mom and Dad are the best mom and dad one could have.”
I don’t think the Hanoverian Kings had to do with noun capitalization. I mentioned German noun capitalization as English evolved from Germanic roots (with Norman French, Danish, &c., &c., &c.). Perhaps the convention --or influence-- comes from there, along with the lack of conventions in pre-Dr. Johnson’s- dictionary-English.
Capitalization DOES tend to add emphasis to the subject of the sentence, and in a time when things (presumably including speech and writing) proceeded with greater deliberation, such emphasis somehow works well, as the imitation 18thC writing in this stream shows. Or “shews”.
As Katisha has pointed out, the practice long predated the eighteenth century, and yes there were variations, whether over time or between individual writers and printing houses. As today, personal preferences about the use of capitals varied. The sparse use of them tended to appear Latinate, which, depending on the context, might seem either desirable or too formal. Emphasis did play a part, but it was more just the fashion of the period - this was, after all, the style of handwriting and print everyone had always been most familar with. The lack of any firm rules also had the advantage of making it easier for compositors to justify the text when setting a page.
