Easy enough, but what about sparrow or English sparrow, robin or
American robin, rainbow trout, tiger-swallowtail, California king snake,
queen conch, thorny oyster, nerite or bleeding-tooth nerite?
Tom E.
On 11/11/2016 1:01 AM, Ron G. Noseworthy wrote:
> Hi, everyone!
>
> There are common nouns, such as boy, dog, and book; these are not capitalized. Proper nouns are names of specific things and are capitalized, such as Tom, Butch, and American Seashells. As an English teacher, I taught this for many years.
>
> Regards,
> Ron Noseworthy
>
> --------------------------------------------
> On Fri, 11/11/16, worldwide <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Subject: Re: [CONCH-L] Common names and capital letters
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Received: Friday, November 11, 2016, 2:43 PM
>
> Based on the outcome of conventions
> created for
> the AFS names project they ended up out of sync
> with the Associated Press Stylebook, the bible of news
> writers.
>
> For animal names such as the dog, the frog, or
> the thrush, the names are lower case. Specific
> animals names are to be Capitalized, e.g. Painted Frog or
> Ruby-Throated Thrush.
>
> Rich
>
> At 09:21 PM 11/10/2016, you wrote:
> >Dear Leslie,
> >
> >It certainly would be great if you could
> >document all of this when time permits.
> >
> >Intuition and admittedly enfeebled recollection
> >lead me to believe the use of lower case for the
> >initial letters of vernacular names has a more
> >deep-seated origin/philosophy than mere simplicity of
> keyboard operation.
> >
> >Harry
> >
> >PS: POV must mean point of view - and AFS American
> Fisheries Society. HGL
> >
> >
> >At 08:51 PM 11/10/2016, Leslie Crnkovic wrote:
> >>Hello Susan,
> >>
> >>To provide a historical perspective...
> >>Going back to the 1988 1st edition of the AFS
> >>Common and Scientific Names of Mollusca... Turgeon
> et al
> >>
> >>When working on a research paper some 12 to 14
> >>years ago, I actually interviewed Turgeon on the
> matter.
> >>The reasoning at that time (consider the state
> >>of the PC and Typewriter of the late 80s), the
> >>POV of the AFS was that it was extra effort to
> >>make sure that each word was capitalized and to
> >>assure consistency they standardized all lower
> >>case. Note, they were doing Fish and Crustacea
> also.
> >>
> >>R. Tucker Abbott was deeply involved in the
> >>original debate, and ultimately lost the battle
> >>to capitalize these 'formal' names. Abbott
> >>wrote several articles on the topic (don’t
> >>have access to the references at the moment),
> >>in one article I remember was him referencing
> >>an article he wrote called "Non-Capps Poops"
> >>but it that appears to have never been
> >>published. Best guess is it was submitted to
> Astronaut Trail Shell Club.
> >>
> >>Hope that helps,
> >>
> >>Leslie Crnkovic
> >>San Jacinto College
> >>
> >>
>
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