Log in. Install the app. JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding. You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly. Several studies have found that this expressive lengthening, as linguist Tyler Schnoebelen named it, is sensitive to social context: People lengthen more in private texts or chat messages than in public posts.
People are also sensitive to linguistic cues. On the whole, indicators of strong feeling have remained remarkably stable since the early days of the internet, and for much of the past hundred years. Catullus or Chaucer would have been at a loss, but L. Montgomery from the s would have had no particular difficulty telling when a modern text message wanted to express excitement or emphasis.
When you buy something using the retail links in our stories, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Read more about how this works. She's the cocreator of Lingthusiasm , a podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics, and the author of Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language. Capitals show important words in a title. Capitalize the first and last word, as well as any major word in a title or subtitle words such as "a," "an," and "the" are not usually capitalized unless they function as the first word in the title or subtitle.
Here are two examples. The first is the title of a play and the second is a title of a book. Tip: Words that are customarily capitalized such as "September" appear capitalized in the dictionary. So why do some people write in all caps?
It may not be a lack of capitalization skills that is to blame. Lower-case letters can be hard for people who struggle with handwriting to form. They contain a lot of circular shapes that may be difficult for a person with dysgraphia or dyspraxia, conditions that impact on the fine motor skills needed to hold a pen or pencil.
Capital letters are composed of more straight lines and are generally larger relative to lower-case, which makes caps easier to draw. Read more in our posts on strategies for dysgraphia and how to help a child with dyspraxia in the classroom. Lower-case text can also be problematic for some individuals to read— including those who struggle with dyslexia. Consider the amount of repeat shapes in the lower-case alphabet.
This is one reason why you may find a dyslexic person prefers to write in all caps! Learn more about dyslexia. Latin languages use capital letters to begin a sentence or for certain word categories, for example proper nouns. The terms upper and lower-case date from the time of the letter-press when the metal shapes used to print text were stored in different drawers.
Because lower-case letters were used more frequently, they were stored in a physical case that was lower to the ground and easier to reach.
All alphabets require an arbitrary association of sounds to symbols. Did you know English spelling is in part a challenge because the same sound can be represented by different letters and sets of letters?
There are also more phonemes than there are letters so many letters have to do double duty, especially the vowels.
Learn more about English spelling. Some people have tried to create connections between the shape of a letter and a concrete noun it is used to spell. This has been done for hard-to-learn alphabets, including Hebrew and Arabic, and the drawings are commonly referred to as glyphs — short for hieroglyphics.
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