Derek says,
“I think that we capitalize I so that we show possession or significance? This should be pretty elementary….but even I am stumped. ”
In English, the only pronoun capitalized is “I”.
In German, where all nouns are capitalized, “ich” is not, but Sie, formal for “you” is.
We capitalize proper names, so maybe I is considered a proper name.
Language is like sex, you don’t try to deal with it logically.
#1 by Elizabeth on 03/24/2006 - 4:19 pm
Nouns were routinely capitalized in U.S. English until sometime in the past 200 years.
I’ve seen this done in old manuscripts, mainly handwritten documents.
I didn’t understand why the Quakers upset society so much by never using “you”
in speaking to one person. In college, I found out that almost every other language has
a form of “you” for addressing higher-ups and elders [“You” in Standard English; “Sie” in
German], a form of “you” for addressing equals and inferiors [“Thou” in archaic English;
“Du” in German]and a form of “you” for speaking to more than one person [“Y’all” in
Southern; “sie” in German].
I want to make it clear that I do not admire the Quakers.
#2 by Derek on 03/24/2006 - 5:33 pm
Perhaps we should start addressing people with You instead of ‘you’. There seems to have been a degeneration in the English language over the years. So much so that it favours our enemies in that it grants moral absolutionisms (if we let it).
i.e. Old English used to state “There is truth in that statement” rather than “That is a true statement”. To me, or in my opinion, there lies the subtle difference.
To me very few things are rigid and dogmatic enough in life to be defined by such morally absolute standards. Life is far too slippery. Sex included.
#3 by Shari on 03/24/2006 - 5:37 pm
I’m glad that English does not have a formal and informal you at this insane time. It would be further oppression to have to address criminals formally. Meanwhile our paper refers to an illegal alien as “gentleman.” Maybe language is like sex in that it is not dealt with honestly either.