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Wednesday, 30 November 2016

Capitalisation in titles

Wondrousnesses,

check the rules for capitalisation in titles (books, songs, TV programmes, filsm etc.) because many people are slipping up on this:

  • Always put a capital at the start of the first word.
  • After that, capitalise the first letter of any lexical words but not grammar function words. 

Not sure what I mean? Grammar function words are the 'closed classes' - the types of words that don't get new words added (except in truly exceptional circumstances like the possibility of a new gender-neutral pronoun). Whereas lexical words carry meaning. In titles, it is conventional to only leave out capitals for determiners, conjunctions and prepositions - pronouns are closed class but often appear capitalised, probably because I always is capitalised and so it seems unfair(!) to leave the others out. Auxiliary verbs are also 'closed class' but since verbs are capitalised, perhaps they don't like to be left out either and are usually capitalised. There are always some exceptions in published titles so check the original if possible, otherwise follow the rules above.

e.g. The Hound of the Baskervilles, Pride and Prejudice, Never Let Me Go, A Passage to India

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