Conference thebay::joyoflex

Good question, when someone answers it, please add the rules for contractions
too.  For example, I often write i'll or i've instead of I'll or I've; which
way is best, and does anyone care anyway?

If languages are being mentioned too, why does German Capitalise Nearly Every
Word?

Cheers, Greg.

RE .0

>    Why does English have a capitalized `I'?  Why not `i'?

Maybe they think: "As soon as i am capitalized, my wife will be very rich"?

Just a thought. :-)

Arie

    German capitalizes nouns, c'est tout.

    Re .0:
    
    English has a capitalized I in Spanish == "Ingles." ;-)
    
    I suspect that the capitalized I actually is because it's a one-letter
    word, and this sets it apart _as_ a word. "A" can also be a one-letter
    word, but that's an article rather than a pronoun.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

    
    
    
    Perhaps it comes from 'capitalize' itself. ( Capital I's ?)
    
    Reminds me of a true story.
      
    A junior high student ( far behind in her learning...) was looking
    at a set cards of the alphabet. The cards were in the correct
    alphabetical order but she looked quite puzzled and the teacher
    asked "Is there something wrong?" "Yes", she said, "the 'N' is in the
    wrong place." The teacher asked her to explain. Seems that when
    she learned the alphabet, she would always end it with "T", "U"
    "V", "W", "X", "Y" and "Z". The 'and' had become corrupted in the
    saying of the alphabet and had become a "N".

    jc ( who was once a teacher, but not the one in the story )     
    
   
    
    
    

> I suspect that the capitalized I actually is because it's a one-letter
> word, and this sets it apart _as_ a word. "A" can also be a one-letter
> word, but that's an article rather than a pronoun.

Why the special treatment just because it's a one-letter word?  No one
capitalises the other pronouns, do They?

GT    

    Re .6 (GT):
    
    Thast depends on Who's writing them. :-)
    
    My point was that "I" is a pronoun _and_ a one-letter word.  Recall
    also that in older times, the royal "we" of proclamations was also
    capitalized (as in "Today, We have set Our seal upon this edict
    ..."); this may have carried over to the nonroyal "I."
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

    
    Apparently , they are trying to scrap the all capital nouns in German,
    and are meeting scholarly opposition .
    
    John J
    

    
    I always write `I' as a capital, simply because it looks better
    that way.  Perhaps this is because of the dot, or more likely because
    I'm used to seeing `I' written as a capital?
    
    I have the feeling that if there were such a word as `j', I would
    write this as a capital too, while `m' or `x' look all right in
    lower-case.

    Mat.
    *:o)
    

    Surely it's just because 'I' is a (complex) proper name,
    at once genral to everyone and particular to the speaker.
    
    Richard.

    
    re -.1
    
    That doesn't work, because the same could be said about `he'.  As
    far as I know, this only gets capitalized when used in a biblical
    sense (or at the beginning of a sentence :-)).
    
    Mat.
    *:o)
    

    As to the dot on top of a small i, my 4 yr old takes the best of
    both worlds ... she dots a Capital I ...
    
                          o
                          I
    
    

    re: .10 & .11
    
    	   I is capitalized because it is a proper noun referring
    	to the speaker in specific.  By the same token, "he" by itself
    	is non-specific, requiring some other object (such as the
    	proper noun -- name) to make it specific.  Since it does 
    	not stand alone as a proper noun it is not capitalized.
    
    	   As an interesting aside, note the use of capitalization
    	when referring to God (implying "the one and only god"), as
    	opposed to "gods" or "the god of war", in which "god" does
    	not stand alone as a proper noun.  When "God" is capitalized,
    	it is used as if it were a name, when not capitalized it is 
    	merely a description.
    
    	   As for the contractions, the same rules apply.  When using
    	a proper noun in a contraction, the proper noun must be
    	capitalized.  For example, you would not reduce "John is"
    	to "john's", but to "John's" to preserve the significance 
    	of the noun.  
    
    	   I do hope this puts an end to the mystery of the capital
    	I.  Far too often have I seen people too lazy to press the
    	shift key when referring to themselves, and in my eye that
    	makes them seem much less important and individual.
    
    	- Greg

    what was the name of that cockroach character by e. e. cummings who
    couldn't type both a key and the shift key simultaneously/
    
    the footnote in bartlett's says, 'the terror of typesetters, an
    enigma to book reviewers, and the special target of all the
    world's literary philistines.'

    re .13
    
    I stand corrected.
    
    Incidentally, does anyone else use a different form of capital I
    (in handwriting) at the beginning of sentences and normal proper
    nouns from the one that they use for the personal pronoun?  For
    some reason (not entirely clear to myself), | tend to use an I without
    serifs (or whatever they're called) if it appears on its own in
    the middle of a sentence. The same applies to |'ll, |'m etc.
    
    Does this have some deep psychological significance? :-)
    
    Mat.
    *:o)
    

Completely inane comments to follow
                                                                        

RE: -1

>    Incidentally, does anyone else use a different form of capital I
>    (in handwriting) at the beginning of sentences and normal proper
>    nouns from the one that they use for the personal pronoun?  For
>    some reason (not entirely clear to myself), | tend to use an I without
>    serifs (or whatever they're called) if it appears on its own in
>    the middle of a sentence. The same applies to |'ll, |'m etc.
                                                    
I reckon it was a disgruntled typesetter who invented this fancy 'I' with
the little 'serifs' (ref. LAWM), just to annoy all those folks who type
at a keyboard all day, doing him out of a job. "Ha" says he/she, "that'll
team 'em", as millions of non-typists groan as untrained digits dart for
the shift key... Then there are those folks who really believe that nothing
beats a good hand-written document..... That rampant typesetter has got
everyone so convinced that the fancy bits above and below that 'very simple
and quick to draw little line' are essential for the aesthetics of the piece!
Bah. It's one of the most time-consuming letters to write by hand (for me,
with crayons 8-)), but one of the most frequent, -- must be a prank!
									
>    Does this have some deep psychological significance? :-)

In a word, Yes! The significance is, you're lazy 8-)!     

R|tch^d    
    
            

    I've read and written lots of resum�s.  
    
    Some people just won't use the word "I" in the resum�: 
    
    	"Studied forensic nutrition at the Sorbonne.  Scaled Mount Pisgah.
    	 Translated Italo Calvino into Dutch."              
    
    Others bomb right along, using normal diction:
    
    	"I am bad-tempered and work poorly with others.  I have had
     	 nine jobs in the past two months.  I dropped out of school
    	 at age 29."
    
    I think the non-I people are afraid of appearing egotistical.  One `I'
    is just the thin edge of the wedge in a resum�.  Put one in and you'll
    end up with 50 before you're through and there's the page staring at
    your prospective employer "I ... I ... I ... I ..." ad nauseam.
    
    I use 'I' in my own resum� on the theory that `I' am, after all,
    the one applying for a job and `I' am the one with all these
    interesting experiences.  When I'm writing them for others, I give
    them a choice.  About half don't want to use the `I'. 
    

    Re .14  (Tom):
    
    Archy.
    
    Re .16 (Richard):
    
>I reckon it was a disgruntled typesetter who invented this fancy 'I' with
>the little 'serifs' (ref. LAWM), just to annoy all those folks who type
>at a keyboard all day, doing him out of a job. 
 
    Oh, whoever invented it was reasonably gruntled.  Whether one types
    "|" or "I," one has to use the shift key.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.       

    Did e. e. cummings really invent a cockroach character?  The one
    I know of - archy - was invented by Don Marquis, originally a 
    newspaper columnist. archy was the reincarnation of a _vers_libre_
    poet, whose motto was `toujours gai'.  He had to dive-bomb the
    keys of the type-writer. (I always wondered how he managed the 
    carriage return.) archy's great friend and rival was mehitabel 
    the cat - `there's a dance in the old dame yet'.
    
    Or maybe archy, like a lot of the people who call themselves `i',
    was just a C programmer.
    

    b

    Re .17
    
>    	"Studied forensic nutrition at the Sorbonne.  Scaled Mount Pisgah.
>    	 Translated Italo Calvino into Dutch."              
    
>    is just the thin edge of the wedge in a resum�.  Put one in and you'll
                                                      ----------
    
    Ok .
    
     	"One studied forensic nutrition at the Sorbonne. 
         One scaled Mount Pisgah.
    	 One translated Italo Calvino into Dutch."              
              
    Didn't one ?
    
    John J
       

    "toujours gai" was mehitabel's motto, and indeed the author was don
    marquis.
    
    wot the hell i
    feel superior to that
    stupid bunch me
    for a dance
    across the roofs when
    the red star
    calls to my blood
    none of your
    pretty puss stuff for
    mehitabel it would
    give me a grouch
    to have to be so
    solemn toujours
    gai archy toujours
    gai is my
    motto
    
    		archy

re .13:
>    
>    	   I is capitalized because it is a proper noun referring
>    	to the speaker in specific.  By the same token, "he" by itself
>    	is non-specific, requiring some other object (such as the
>    	proper noun -- name) to make it specific.  Since it does 
>    	not stand alone as a proper noun it is not capitalized.

?

Larry

    
    Another theroy I've heard looking at it from a phycological viewpoint
    using `i' instead of `I' is that when you use `i' you are degrading
    yourself, that is to say you don't think to much of yourself.
    
    `I', meaning yourself, and representing it as a `i' states that you
    are or don't feel good about yourself in terms with life & happiness
    so you make yourself appear small.
    
    On the other hand it's very unlikely that you'll ever find a successful
    person use `i' they'll always use `I' because they are at a point
    in life where ther are at terms with themself. 
    

    Reading through the replies, I find several theories suggested:
    
    1. The ego theory
       When talking about one's self, there is the temptation to 
       emphasize (or even overemphasize).
       But counterexamples are the words "me" and "myself".
    
    2. The disambiguation theory
       Just as a solitary "god" is spelled "God", so should the
       real me be spelled "I".  Perhaps this should be called
       the "solipsistic theory"!
       Two arguments: there is really no confusion that can be
       reduced by capitalizing "i" (unless in a SF story involving
       time travel so that there are two of you at the same time);
       arguing by analogy with the spelling of God's name is hubris
       and not very compelling.
    
    So, does anyone have a historical argument?  For example, did
    printers prefer to use a capital "I" so that it got even wear?

>    So, does anyone have a historical argument?  

Yes.  I do it because if I didn't capitalize it, Sister Mary Elephant 
would have knocked me into next week.  Now it's just a habit.

					>>>==>PStJTT

    For what it's worth, German, Russian and French don't capitalize
    the first person pronoun.
    
    So much for grandiose psychological theories.
    
    			-John Bishop

     "I" is capitalized because i� = -1.
     
     Dan

RE -2

>                      -< ich/moi,je/"ya"(backwards "R") >-

>    For what it's worth, German, Russian and French don't capitalize
>    the first person pronoun.

Add "ja", "ik", "io", ...
Interesting to see that they *all* use more than one letter.
Maybe it's to compensate for *that*?

Arie
(RE -1: what a square thought!) :-)

Re .12 (by KAOFS::S_BROOK)

>   As to the dot on top of a small i, my 4 yr old takes the best of
>   both worlds ... she dots a Capital I ...
>                         o
>                         I

Of course she does.  She's your dotter.   :-)



Re use of 'I' in resumes, and other writings:

This noter was taught in school never to use the pronoun 'I' when
writing resumes, reports, submissions, etc.  That is, one refers to
oneself by using the word 'this' followed by a noun or noun phrase
describing the relationship of the writer to the reader;  e.g., this
reporter,  this noter, this petitioner, this writer.  (Cf. the military
use of the definite limiting article 'the' in speech for referring both
to oneself and to superior ranking people, as in "The private requests
permission to speak to the sergeant" (as though there were only one
private and only one sergeant).  Translation:  "Sergeant, may I speak to
you?")

This former student's eighth grade English teacher used to down-grade a
student's mark on reports and the like by one letter grade for each
five occurrences of 'I' (excepting quotations, of course).

Of course, now I don't bother with that silly rule, because I don't 
want to appear to be pedantic, even though I still am.

Dave C.

    This noter are mystified.  I have never come across "this writer,"
    etc. in resumes.  Did your teacher give you a reason for the advice?
    Did he or she explain what advantage is to be gained?
    
    Too many sentences beginning with "I" become quite noticeable and
    begin to detract from the content.  But it wouldn't take more than
    one or two "this writer"s to drive the reader mad.
    
    Bernie

    In resumes, I've always heard that short sentence fragments are the
    preferred method of conveying thoughts.  It allows you to pack more
    information in less space and avoids the problems of using too many
    "I did"'s and "I was"'s.
    
    For example:
    ACME Widget, Inc.
    February, 1980 through May, 1988
    Senior Philosopher
    Formulated various theories of the origin and meaning of Life, the
    Universe, and everything.  Acquired Donuts for the staff on alternate
    Tuesdays.  Made up replies for customer complaints which made no sense,
    but sounded really good.
    
    
    d

    
    The Queen used to have this problem -- couldn't get a decent job.
    She put it down to using 'I' too often in her c.v., when in fact
    it was because she was only qualified for the regal profession.
    
    Anyway, she changed it to 'We'.
    
    Richard.

    Re: .33
    
    YOU'RE HIRED!
    
    But we require donuts *every* Tuesday.
    
    -bs

    Re: .34
    
    But then she was beside herself wasn't she ;-).
    
    Larry

    WHEN COMPUTERS BEGAN TO EMERGE FROM INFANCY INTO THEIR CHILDHOOD,
    THEY WERE ONLY CAPABLE OF SHOUTING.  ALL PRONOUNS AND OTHER PARTS
    OF SPEECH, PROPER AND IMPROPER, HAD TO BEGIN WITH A CAPITAL LETTER.
    As time progressed, lower-case letters were added for sale to rich
    customers who bought high-end systems.  However, like the shoemaker's
    children who go barefoot, or the computer association that made do
    with an obsolete computer, one who produced or sold a lower-case
    letter couldn't afford to use it oneself.  That is to say, anyone
    who could make an "i" couldn't use it.  Therefore the use of "I"
    has persisted until this day.

fyi:	when I took Russian language in college we were told that 
	in the written Russian language, the formal pronoun for "you" 
	(looks like BbI, pronounced like "vih") is capitalized.

	Rather fits in with the communistic philosophy - on second thought,
	if that were the case then the pronoun for "we" would probably
	be capitalized.
	
	-- Angela

    The Russian language predates the communistic philosophy.
    (And might outlive it.)
    
    -- Norman Diamond