Andrew Sullivan <a...@anvilwalrusden.com> wrote: > On Wed, May 16, 2012 at 07:17:04AM -0700, Dave Crocker wrote: > > Case does not define meaning in normal language, why should it here? > > That is false. Consider these two passages: > > The King asked the Queen, > and the Queen asked the dairy-maid … > > vs > > The king asked the queen, > and the queen asked the dairy-maid…
I really can't tell any difference between the two. The capitalization here is just a conventional mark of respect (cf. God). Better examples: Polish / polish "I helped my uncle Jack off a horse" Catholic / catholic Conservative / conservative In the latter two cases you often get disambiguating circumlocutions (such as "conservative with a small c" in British political discussion) so even if you can use case to make a distinction in meaning, it's usually too subtle to rely on if you want to avoid "amusing" misinterpretations. Tony. -- f.anthony.n.finch <d...@dotat.at> http://dotat.at/ Humber, Thames: South or southwest 3 or 4, backing east 4 or 5 later. Slight or moderate. Mainly fair. Mainly good.
