h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

...or should that read "why *am* I capitalized in English?"

This question may have been asked before, but I have neither mind nor time to check it out myself right now.

Y.

I don't have the answer to your question, but if you read this:

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=I

maybe you'll be as confused as I am Translation anyone?

Emmily

Translation is: me don't know - and me am an English speaker.

I'm 99% sure this is in the British English thread, as i think I asked it.

A quick google gives us a few things, the main suggestion being a way to distinguish between the 1st person pronoun (or whatever it is!) and any other lowercase 'i' or '1' in manuscripts and printing.

Sounds a bit of a fudge to me though. The really curious thing to me is not why do we capitalise 'I', which kinda makes sense, but why don;t we capitalise he, she, it and so forth?

because it it is considered a proper noun to be or not to be

I i is the first perperson singular of of the verb be and when one refers to one's self it becomes a a proper noun

Yea.. What (crazyhorse) said.

It's like you capitalize Father when it is being used as a name as in, "Father, may I have some more treacle?" but you don't capitalise it when you say "My father was a right ba**ard!"....

Oh, but wait, that doesn't explain why at all does it....

Why IS 'I' capitalised but not 'He', 'She', 'We', etc?

Egotism?... to check another source, BRB

"I i is the first perperson singular of of the verb be"
What?

Are you trying to say that the verb 'be' (sic) goes
He is
they are
You were
She will be
I i
?

Excuse me if I betray any hint of scepticism here, please.

"Father, may I have some more treacle?"

is capitalised because 'father' is the first ford of the sentence!

i you he shit we you they

obviously 'ford' = 'word' in my last post. It did read 'fword' originally so at least it was a better typo than it may have been!

Oh, yea... bad example, replace with this "Why wouldn't Father give us mre treacle?"

mre = more

but I wouldn't capitalise 'father' in that sentence. 'I' stands on its own, and there is a clarification issue behind it. I shall see if I can find the answer I received.

We USED to capitalize all proper nouns - Father, the Horse is playing in the Field Today. Courage, We shall pour Treacle in the Works regardless... Sorry, spot of 18th century dribble there to illustrate. 'I' is the only hangover left from those heady days of capitalisation.

You DO capitalise 'Father' in that sentence because it is being used as a name.

Rule: Capitalise words used as names or as part of names.
Example: Did Uncle George tell my mum that our grandmother is with Dad buying treacle?

Well, at the risk of ridicule I'd have to disagree. Merely because that is not what I understand and the examples don;t convince me. Always open to learning though!

Anyway, my commments:-

"But so are 'mum' and 'grandma'. Either all or none, surely?
I'd agree if we were discussing 'uncle'. ie My uncle vs. My Uncle George. Perhaps, if your example included a name, I might be tempted. I.e 'you are old Father Williams' to quote a poem.
But just father on its own capitalised? Without any qualifier it is merely an identifier and not part of anyones name."

It's the usage of the words that determine whether it is capitalised.

Except for the bit about treacle I was citing a specific rule and example.

Here's another from http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/capitals.htm :

"Names of relationships only when they are a part of or a substitute for a person's name. (Often this means that when there is a modifier, such as a possessive pronoun, in front of such a word, we do not capitalize it.)
Let's go visit Grandmother today. Let's go visit my grandmother today.
I remember Uncle Arthur. I remember my Uncle Arthur. My uncle is unforgettable."

So whereI could say "let's go visit Lilly" where lilly is my grandmother, that would become "Let's go visit Grandmother". Hmm, that makes sense.

sorry for the dropped capital on the second Lilly. In a thread about capitalisation as well!