[mb-style] RFC: english capitalizationofshortenedwordsbeginingwith a single quote

[joan WHITTAKER]

That's two things we are in agreement on.

Initial capitalisation
and
I also hate Pink Floyd.

Joan

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dave Smey" <autodave at davesmey.com>
To: "MusicBrainz style discussion" <musicbrainz-style at lists.musicbrainz.org>
Sent: Sunday, September 03, 2006 5:18 PM
Subject: Re: [mb-style] RFC: english 
capitalizationofshortenedwordsbeginingwith a single quote


>I think Michelle's arguments are very well put here.
>
> Capitalization of the first word is, in my opinion, much easier to nail
> down.  The argument for it is different, that
>
> 1) Initial capitalization overrides other considerations.  You capitalize
> an initial article, like "the" or "a", even though you would not if it is
> in the middle of a title.
>
> Thus, it is easy to conceive that #1 could trump the "missing letters"
> argument (that the first letter of the word is what you would capitalize,
> but it is missing.)  If you believe that you really really need a cap at
> the beginning of a title (as you would at the beginning of an
> English-language sentence) you can believe that initial capitalization
> trumps all kinds of things (like trademarked words in lowercase, my eMusic
> example.)
>
> Plus, it was really quite easy for me to satisfy myself that this is the
> standard out in the world, doing a quick search of library catalogues and
> my CD shelf.  (Joan is the only one in the thread who also indicated that
> she bought the library cat. example.)
>
> ***
>
> Most people who weighed in for lowercase in the middle of titles were
> still influenced by the "missing letters" argument.  I am in agreement
> with Michelle that you could go farther and dispute the importance of
> missing letters altogether.  This is similar to what I was saying earlier,
> that "these are words in a dialect" more than abbreviations.
>
> The key to the representation-of-dialect way of thinking is that the
> apostrophe is a "signal" that something you might otherwise expect has
> been removed, but not a *necessary* punctuation every time something is
> removed.  This is where contemporary verbal representation is going, and
> it becomes much more obvious when you look at hip-hop titles.
>
> The example I used with zout in an off-list email is "Snap Yo Fingaz."
> "Yo" is obviously a shortening of "you," but I think most of you will
> intuitively sense that it would be foolish to insist that it really should
> be yo' with an apostrophe.  After all, how will we correct "fingaz"?
> (Should we interject [sic.] for every other word?)  The wider context of
> the title makes it clear that we are in a dialect and there is really no
> reason to worry about "missing letters" - everything is just being
> transformed to mimic the way African-Americans speak.  (Or, in the case of
> some hip-hop, an exaggerated dialect that some are choosing to use.)
>
> Michelle also writes:
>
>> I've waded through the MB-users list for arguments against my stance on
>> the
>> general case, but I can only discussions about capitalisation of first
>> letters (i.e. 'Round Midnight), with which I wholeheartedly agree.
>>
>> So could someone please point out arguments on the other side to me? I
>> think
>> I may be having a bad case of wilful blindness :)
>>
> Yeah, it is in there, all based on the "missing letters" argument.
>
> Also, somebody tried and failed to say that most abbreviations are
> prepositions and thus should be lowercase, but that didn't wash due to the
> 3/4 letter thing.
>
> Nobody explicitly went to bat for mid-title capitalization.
>
> (Apologies if I mis-remember anything, as, it has been demonstrated, I am
> certainly capable of doing.  But I have reread the whole thread..)
>
>> I sincerely apologise for destroying consensus. However, the consensus
>> seems
>> to have been on the first letter case only, so I feel like less of a
>> vandal...
>
> While I do think the list's valuation of consensus is good, I remain
> conviced that the discussion here is still somewhat broken.  Firstly, if
> you really count posts as votes, I don't see why you would say we have
> reached consensus on initial capitalization.  There was a surprising (to
> me) initial flurry of comments in favor of 'round Midnight, my arguments
> in favor of 'Round in the middle with some people concurring with that,
> and trailing arguments for "just follow artists intent."
>
> But more so I am disturbed that many just don't value good arguments
> and/or research in the discussion.  Many weigh in with "I like this" or "I
> don't like this" and "I have no idea why" or even "Obviously there is no
> rule."  Not that that is totally unacceptable (except for the last
> statement, which IS), but we should try to do a lot better.   The
> Wiki-model works not just because it is a democracy, but because it is a
> democracy of people who are willing to do the necessary work to create
> knowledge.
>
> So, if what I am saying is true, then the real problem (and the real
> reason the list might be broken) may be people who don't have the patience
> to read other people's arguments and just want to broadcast their own,
> people who make willfully uninformed or unpragmatic arguments, and people
> who essentially want to say "shut up, I am tired of hearing about this
> already."  (Switching to a message board would certainly help alleviate
> that last problem, since every single message will no longer be broadcast
> into one's mailbox.  And it becomes much easier to reread the past and
> digest what has been said.)
>
> Or, to wrap up, good job Michelle.  You go girl, I hate Pink Floyd too.
>
> -D
>
>
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