I’ve always maintained that a person’s name is exactly what they say it is. If someone tells me that their name is Zorfblatf, but it’s pronounced “Bob”, I’ll (try to) call them that. By the same token, if a person chooses to write their name in lower-case, such as the poet e.e.cummings, I respect that. This is also an issue with many usernames here and elsewhere online, which, to be honest, is the context in which I originally thought of this.
The problem problem comes when such a name is used as the first word of a sentence, such as “e.e.cummings was familiar with the conventional rules of grammar, but deliberately used a different set of rules.”. In such a case, should the name be capitalized, at the first word of the sentence, or does the person’s preference for lower-case override this, just as the normal preference for capitalized names overrides the rule for words in the middle of a sentence to be lowercase?
What I always do is intentionally avoid putting myself in that situation. You could, with a very few exceptions, reword the sentence:
“Although e.e.cummings was familiar with the conventional rules of grammar, he deliberately used a different set of rules.”
I do know what you’re talking about, though. One time I absolutely had to have “pH” (probability of Hydrogen) as the first term in a sentence, and strangely enough, it’s a lot less recognizable when it’s capitalized, so I left it lowercase, and hoped nobody thought it looked dumb.
At a guess, if e e cummings wants to ignore some of the rules of grammar, like capitalisation of the names, why diferentiate between rules, over-ride the lot?
E.E. Cummings never lowercased his own name. A publisher of his poetry decided to do that on the cover of one of his books, and it stuck. You want a real example of what you’re talking about, go with k.d. lang or bell hooks.
This issue came up at the last paper I worked at. My opinion was that since proper name capitalization overrides the default case in the middle of a sentence, proper name lowercasing ought to override the default case at the beginning. My über-editor, however, thought that beginning-of-sentence capitalization ought to trump, if only for the sake of readability. On our particularly cranky days, we would both come to the verge of deciding to disregard people’s arty whims and force them all into standard capitalization patterns. In other words, it’s a matter of individual style, and reasonable people of goodwill disagree, sometimes even with themselves.
Really, Geenius? I had always assumed that it was his own idea… It certainly doesn’t seem inconsistent with his writing style. Anyway, as ChiefScott recognized, I’m really more interested in how to deal with lowercase usernames. Presumably, a person who lowercases their name wants it that way, so I agree that it should overrided the beginning of sentence. On the other hand, maybe they were just too lazy to hit shift when they typed it.
It bothers me when people write Xekul even if it’s at the beginning of a sentence because it looks weird to me. This has to do with the fact that it’s also a UNIX username, which is case sensitive. The Jargon File actually mentions this problem, and it suggests rewording the sentence so it doesn’t begin with the name, as Achernar suggested.
E.E. Cummings had every right to not use caps in his poetry.
But, not in his name, EXCEPT as it was part of his work. From what I read, good ol’ “e.e.” spelled & “capted” his
name normally on his checks & stuff. K.D. Lang, also, can spell it “k.d.” on her albums, as that is an artistic work. But when you write about her, as opposed to her work, it would be “K.D.”. Her misspelling of her name on non artistic sources is simply for publicity. Since she is not writing you a check for the publicity, you would spell it correctly.
You were absolutely correct. pH, even when it is the first word of a sentence, should never be capitalized. I learned this from my high school biology teacher, and later saw it confirmed in a style book. Alpha-particle when spelled with the Greek letter rather than the word “alpha” is likewise uncapitalized when it is first in a sentence. (I can’t make the Greek letter work here.)
Daniel: That was our line of thinking during our cranky moments. However, at other times, our mandate was to honor a person’s preferences concerning the treatment of his own name. Once you start insisting that k.d. lang be called K.D. Lang, then you start refusing to allow corporations use what I and a few other copy editors refer to as “InterCaps,” and then you’re into territory where you’re actually insisting that little Steffynee spell her name Stephanie like any goddamn sane person would.
On the other hand, we never allowed anyone, individual or organization, to use an all-caps name – unless it was an acronym and pronounced as such, letter by letter. “NYNEX” got turned into “Nynex.” But we did indulge fIREHOSE.
This concludes an unnerving glimpse into the lives of copy editors.
I’m going with the latter theory, but I’d think ‘neglectful’ is more precise than ‘lazy’ – The internet seems to be sounding a sort of death knell for capitalization. Before the web, I never heard anybody use the term ‘case-sensitive’ - presumably because there was nothing of import from which to distinguish that now rare quality.
The phrase “case sensitive” was invented to deal with the errors of stoopid computers, not lazy humans.
For example, humans easily recognize “password”, “Password”, and “passworD” as the same word. Yet some - but not all - stoopid computers think these are three entirely different things. This causes havoc when the human tries to log on. Hence the need for the word “case sensitive.” (“Why don’t any of the graphics display on my web page?!” “The server it’s on is case-sensitive, remember. Check the filenames.”)
