Why Capital Letters are Necessary

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Consider the following sentence:

I helped my Uncle Jack off his horse.

Now consider the same sentence de-capitalized.

Q.E.D..

ruveyn

I agree so wholeheartedly with that sentiment, i have capitalized an "i."

I've seen that before.

Wishing for people to be more mindful of their grammar is like wishing for world peace - it's just not going to happen.

That sentence is way more fun without capitals.

hyphens

I helped my Uncle Jack-off his horse.

and silent W

I helped my Uncle Jack-off his whorse.

and quotes

I helped my 'Uncle' Jack-off his whorse.


Now consider the same sentence, de-capitalized.

well that would be 20-life not the chair.

hyphens

I helped my Uncle Jack-off his horse.

and silent W

I helped my Uncle Jack-off his whorse.

and quotes

I helped my 'Uncle' Jack-off his whorse.


Now consider the same sentence, de-capitalized.

well that would be 20-life not the chair.

The real issue here is the incompleteness of that sentence:

I helped my Uncle Jack [get] off his horse.
I helped my Uncle Jack [while/when he was] off his horse.
I helped my Uncle Jack [while/when I was] off his horse.

Capitalization makes no more difference here than it does in spoken communication.

you also get this problem

I helped my Uncle Jack off his rocker.

'off his horse' could be a new colloquialism for being drunk of something.

the difference with 'spoken' communication is that you can usually ask the speaker to explain a littler better.

Certainly ... and I think exercises such as this can be good for making people aware of needs to communicate well.

The only real difference or significant challenge of written communication is the matter of punctuation:

"Let the man who stole steal no more let him work with his hands."
"Let the man who stole steal -- no more let him work with his hands."
"Let the man who stole steal no more -- let him work with his hands."

hmm.. that has another problem.

"Let the man who stole steal, no more, let him work with his hands."

old English style, not have a manual labour job but steal for a living.
"Let the man who stole steal; no more let him work with his hands."

"Let the man who stole steal, no, more let him work with his hands."

or missspelt

"Let the man, who stole steel no more, let him work, with his hands."

then you get the problem of hands being helpers or actually the things on the end of his arms.

Ah, I had not noticed that! I had been pondering uses of "let" ...

there's only one way to do it properly, and you'll end up like this guy..... see if you can work out what he's saying.


I'll put the text here, then the translation, then the link to who is saying it.

A: What do you think of women?

B: Oh I like them. They're nice. If they're put together well, and everything and they're soft and spongy, yeah, they're nice. As long as they keep they're mouth shut and do what they're do what they're supposed to do.

A: Why do you say that?

B: 'cause that's what a woman's supposed to do.

A: Keep her mouth shut and do what she's supposed to do?

B: Sure.

A: Who taught you that?

B: Well, I don't want her snitchin' on me.:

Manson: Oh I like them. They're nice. If they're put together well, and everything and they're soft and spongy, yeah, they're nice. As long as they keep they're mouth shut and do what they're do what they're supposed to do.

Tom: Why do you say that?

Manson: 'cause that's what a woman's supposed to do.

Tom: Keep her mouth shut and do what she's supposed to do?

Manson: Sure.

Tom: Who taught you that?

Manson: Well, I don't want her snitchin' on me.

Capital letters are necessary, because I like to know where each sentence begins and ends, and things that have names and titles should be capitalized.

We have something like this in Polish.

Twoja stara piła leży w piwnicy --> Your old saw lies in the cellar.
Twoja stara piła, leży w piwnicy --> Your mom is drunk, she's lying in the cellar.

Punctuation does really matter!

Last edited by Valoyossa on 09 Dec 2010, 9:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

No original thought of his own, eh?!

I am quite surprised a simple comma could make that much difference in determining/distinguishing two equally-sensible statements!