|
|
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 1
stranger
|
OP
stranger
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 1 |
When you have a sentence that says "...X-number of miles east of said place, do you capitalize the word east (or West, North or South)?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
I wouldn't. When you're talking about a geographical location like the name of a city or town, or a region of the world or a country, yeah, but not just raw like that.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
According to the stylebook of the US Government Printing Office:
3.21. A descriptive term used to denote a definite region, locality, or geographic feature is a proper name and is therefore capitalized; also for temporary distinction a coined name of a region is capitalized.
3.22. A descriptive term used to denote mere direction or position is not a proper name and is therefore not capitalized.
and there you are.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Wow! Ya mean a stylebook agrees with me? Mark this on y'all's calendar folks.
Well, then, they *are talking about descriptive terms.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
Faldage ~
Do you mean that the federal government DOESN'T consult you before it prescribes style?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Are you saying I'm the onliest one they don't consult?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
One wonders what Flounder must think of this dialogue which has run away with Flounder's thread.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
Ah, but the Great Faldo has style to spare. If'n they's not consultin' him, then they's missin' out ...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 6,511 |
... which has run away with Flounder's thread.
Like a fish on a bicycle.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
Waal, up in the Zild we have an expression "to flounder around". It means "to blindly move off in any number of convenient but unpremeditated directions at once when you have absolutely no idea of what the hell you're doing".
We don't capitalise "flounder", but.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Don' feel like no lone ranger, Pfranz. USns up here in the real up uses it like that, too.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 2,788 |
Once, about a hundred years ago, whilst I was taking an undergraduate journalism class, I wrote an article in which I used an overworked metaphor about "causing the ship of state to founder." The professor, who was well past mental retirement age, changed the verb to "flounder" in red ink on my copy. I asked him what was wrong with the word I chose and he responded that it was simply the wrong one. Alas.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jun 2002
Posts: 1,624 |
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,004
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,004 |
I was taught that the cardinal points, and the seasons, were proper nouns and were, properly, capitalised. So for me it's always North, South, East, West, Summer, Winter, Spring and Autumn. I'm sticking to that. (I'd want to believe a US government official document anyway?)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
I suppose if there were only one Summer, but, as I remember, there was one last year and the year before that and the year before that back to the middle of the last century and I have every expectation that there will be one next year and the year after that. As for the cardinal directions, ain't the same thing as relative location of two sites. While you might speak of the narrow road to the deep North, what's north of me is liable to be west of you.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,004
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,004 |
That's the thing, though. In school, these were rules - there was no context-specific information. The word was West, and it didn't matter how it was being used. Maybe I need to reconsider it....
...Nah. That would mean admitting that my teachers were wrong.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
I'm with Faldage.
******
On a different note... I often proffer this usage:
"...what's north of me is liable to be west of you."
How did 'liable' become "likely"?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Dunno how it happened, but the OED has a citation from 1682 in the sense subject to the possibility of (doing or undergoing something undesirable. From there to a sense without the undesirablity isn't much of a leap.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 2,661 |
I guess that explains both the 'legal' and 'likely' *connection.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 13,803 |
Besides, liable isn't quite as strong as likely. Likely implies more than a 50% probability, liable could be less than 50% probable.
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,423
Members9,182
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
1,037
guests, and
3
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
