Andrew Sullivan <ajs(_at_)anvilwalrusden(_dot_)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.
--
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