Re: majuscules in English (was Re: simple ui question)
Al,
Your observation directly contradicts my own. You've noticed that diotima has rather aggressively adopted a feature of IM style (or is that im style) in her (or his???) posts to this list; but evidence from other posts suggests this is strictly an affectation on the part of someone who knows quite well what the rules are.
And it's true that over the last few hundred years the trend among editors has been in the general direction from upstyle to downstyle.
But what I've noticed as a much more annoying trend is the unselfconscious Capitalization of every Noun--Or Even Every Word--by non-writers. It's as if there is something about the German rule that is intuitively appealing to people who never paid attention in English class. Surely, as someone who also works in marketing, er, Marketing, you've seen this, too.
I've noticed it, too. I would trace it to a more self-consious form of Internet communication--back in the 'daze' when people only had plain text to work with. It was a way to add emphasis, communicate sarcasm and/or tongue-in-cheekiness, and probably a precursor to sTudLycaPs. Still, I've noticed it when editing the work of so many programmers and hackers, so I'm guessing that's where they've picked it up.
I also noticed it among students 5-10 years ago. At the time, the Internet wasn't an influence. Rather, if I had to guess, I'd say it was from a tradition of learning to read with the Bible and/or the Bible as the main (or even only) source of reading material in the house.
I'll leave you with a fun quote from John Adams to Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson, btw, was not so inclined to the caps and, although I didn't read every single letter between the two, I don't think TJ complained :) Spilling, punkshuashun, grandma errs, etc. left intact:
You certainly never felt the Terrorism excited by Genet in 1793 when ten thousand People in the Streets of Philadelphia, day after day, threatened to drag Washington out of his House and effect a revolution in the Government, or compel it to declare war in favour of the French Revolution and against England? The coolest and firmest minds have given their Opinions to me that nothing but the Yellow Fever could have saved the United States from the total Revolution of Government. I have no doubt You was fast asleep in Philosophical Tranquility, when ten thousand People...were parading in the streets on the Evening of my Fast Day. When even Governor Mifflin himself thought it his Duty to order a Patrol of Horse and Foot to preserve the Peace; when Markett Street was as full as Men could stand by one another and even before my door...when I myself judged it prudent to order Chests of Arms from the War Office to be brought through bye Lanes and back Doors; determined to defend my House at the Expence of my Life, and the Lives of the very few Domesticks and Friends within it. What think you of Terrorism, Mr. Jefferson?"
--John Adams in a letter to Thomas Jefferson (1813)
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References:
RE: simple ui question: From: diotima
Re: simple ui question: From: Al Geist
majuscules in English (was Re: simple ui question): From: Dick Margulis
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