Grammar police - 911 emergency! - Democratic Underground

Connonym

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Tue Oct-02-07 05:49 PM
Original message

Grammar police - 911 emergency!

when you take a proper noun, for example Freud, and make it into an adjective do you keep or lose the capitalization? Is it Freudian or freudian? Parkinsonian or parkinsonian?

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IntravenousDemilo

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Tue Oct-02-07 06:02 PM
Response to Original message

1. I'd keep the capital in almost all cases where the adjective is derived from someone's name.

Witness Jeffersonian vs Hamiltonian democracy, Rabelaisian humour, Juvenalian satire, Shakespearean and Petrarchan sonnets, Rubenesque women, Shavian wit, and the lines in My Fair Lady: "She'll have a large, Wagnerian mother / With a voice that shatters glass!"

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Starbucks Anarchist

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Tue Oct-02-07 06:10 PM
Response to Reply #1

2. I was going to say the same thing.

Except Mr. Jeopardy had to flaunt his knowledge first. :P

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Oeditpus Rex

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Tue Oct-02-07 06:21 PM
Response to Reply #1

4. What about a Chauvinistic attitude?

I was once told that's "down."

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IntravenousDemilo

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Tue Oct-02-07 06:38 PM
Response to Reply #4

5. ...as I said, almost all cases...

...but the exceptions are what make the language beautiful.

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ashling

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Tue Oct-02-07 07:12 PM
Response to Reply #1

8. So then it's

Grammar and Grammerian . . .
get it? You know, Kelsey Grammer played a psychiatrist .... Freud .....Oh do I have to explain everything!!!?
:rofl:

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gmoney

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Tue Oct-02-07 07:31 PM
Response to Reply #1

10. except "platonic" I believe...

maybe if you go back a couple thousand years, it doesn't count

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6000eliot

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Wed Oct-03-07 04:06 PM
Response to Reply #10

15. How about Aristotelian?

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Aristus

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Tue Oct-02-07 06:21 PM
Response to Original message

3. Bonus: Improper nouns. Improper nouns are always capitalized.

When referring to "Freud", not the person, but his body of work, the term is always capitalized...

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NV Whino

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Tue Oct-02-07 06:40 PM
Response to Original message

6. Keep the cap

as in French bread or German shepherd or Brussels sprouts.

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Oeditpus Rex

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Tue Oct-02-07 07:00 PM
Response to Reply #6

7. According to the Associated Press Stylebook

Lowercase is used, however, when the food does not depend on the proper noun or adjective for its meaning: french fries, graham crackers, manhattan cocktail.

Logic would follow, then that "Brussels sprouts" and "French bread" would be correct, since they aren't the same as "sprouts" and "bread," while "french fries" is also correct.

(There's no entry for "champagne," but I believe it's lower-case, even though true champagne comes from that region of France. Perhaps it's lower-case because the term has been bastardized.)

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ashling

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Tue Oct-02-07 07:19 PM
Response to Reply #7

9. But Freedom Fries

is Capitolized .... and it rhymes, too.

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NV Whino

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Wed Oct-03-07 03:23 PM
Response to Reply #7

12. Don't get me started on wine varietals

But I'll tell you anyway. ;)
The generally accepted way to deal with wine varietals as established by those of us in the wine industry is:
Caps if it is the wine in a bottle.
lower case if it is the grape on the vine.

Which may or may not actually be the correct way to do it.

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unpossibles

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Wed Oct-03-07 03:25 PM
Response to Reply #12

13. I'd guess lowercase for boxed wine... n/t

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NV Whino

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Thu Oct-04-07 10:32 AM
Response to Reply #13

16. !!!

:rofl:

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Throckmorton

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Thu Oct-04-07 01:31 PM
Response to Reply #12

17. Thats It,

I'm not gonna drink Merlot!!!!

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Breeze54

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Tue Oct-02-07 07:32 PM
Response to Original message

11. Keep the caps or it loses it's meaning

imho.

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redqueen

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Wed Oct-03-07 03:31 PM
Response to Original message

14. That's not grammar, that's capitalization.

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