Capitalisation
Before 1750- English Grammarian John Hart, recommended to his readers that a capital letter should be used at the beginning of every sentence, proper name, and important common noun.
By the 17th century and early 18th century, the practice had been extended and capitals were now used for: titles, forms of address, personified nouns, emphasized words and phrases, the names of the branches of knowledge, and for any noun that writers felt to be important.
The growth in capitalisation usage may have been for aesthetic reasons, or perhaps because printers were uncertain about which nouns to capitalize, and so capitalized them all.
After 1750- This was the age of dictionaries, grammars, rules and regulations. Scholars believed that the English language was chaotic and needed firm rules.
Grammarians Jonathan Swift and John Dryden implemented a standard rule for the capitalisation of nouns; which we still follow today:
By the 17th century and early 18th century, the practice had been extended and capitals were now used for: titles, forms of address, personified nouns, emphasized words and phrases, the names of the branches of knowledge, and for any noun that writers felt to be important.
The growth in capitalisation usage may have been for aesthetic reasons, or perhaps because printers were uncertain about which nouns to capitalize, and so capitalized them all.
After 1750- This was the age of dictionaries, grammars, rules and regulations. Scholars believed that the English language was chaotic and needed firm rules.
Grammarians Jonathan Swift and John Dryden implemented a standard rule for the capitalisation of nouns; which we still follow today:
- First letter of proper nouns
- First word of a sentence
- Singular first person pronoun ‘I’