영어에서의 대문자 표기 Capital Letters

[최원석]

안녕하세요, 선생님

기사 작성 연습을 하다가 영어에서의 대문자표기와 관련해 찾아보았더니 잘 정리된 자료가 있었습니다.

영어 논문작성에도 같은 방식이 쓰인다면 참조하실 분들이 있을 것 같아 올립니다.

http://www.informatics.sussex.ac.uk/department/docs/punctuation/node27.html 

영어 표기에서 대문자(capital letters)를 사용하는 경우는 아래에만 한다고 하네요.  

영국 석세스 대학의 자료를 참조해 제가 약간의 예시를 덧붙였습니다.

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the first word of a sentence or fragment  문장이나 문단의 첫 단어

the name of a day or a month 요일과 달  / Monday, August
the name of a language 언어의 이름  / English, Korean ...
a word expressing a connection with a place: 장소(국가)와 관계된 표현 / Dutch landscape, French art
the name of a nationality or an ethnic group : 국가명, 인종 / Korea, Korean, African
a proper name : 고유명사 / Leonardo da Vinci
the name of a historical period : 역사적 시기의 이름 / Industrial Revolution
the name of a holiday : 명절의 이름 / Christmas , Ramadan
a significant religious term : 종교적으로 의미있는 단어:  Genesis (창세기), Shinto (신토)
the first word, and each significant word, of a title : [제목]의 첫 단어와 중요한 단어/ The Silence of the Lambs  ( 전치사와 관사는 대문자로 쓰지 않습니다.)
the first word of a direct quotation which is a sentence : 직접인용한 문장의 첫 단어 / 예를 들면 "All is well!" (알 이즈 웰)
a brand name    : 브랜드 이름  / Sony, Spam
a Roman numeral : 로마숫자 /  XXIV, XIII
the pronoun : 대명사 / She, He, They ...

* You get the idea. Don't use a capital letter unless you're sure you know why it's there.
(참 쉽죠잉? 대문자가 왜 쓰여야 하는지 확실히 모르신다면 쓰지 마세요.)

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(원문)

Capital Letters

Capital letters are not really an aspect of punctuation, but it is c onvenient to deal with them here. The rules for using them are mostly very simple.

(a) The first word of a sentence, or of a fragment, begins with a capital letter:

The bumbling wizard Rincewind is Pratchett's most popular character.

Will anyone now alive live to see a colony on the moon? Probably not.

Distressingly few pupils can locate Iraq or Japan on a map of the world.

(b) The names of the days of the week, and of the months of the year, are written with a capital letter:

Next Sunday France will hold a general election.

Mozart was born on 27 January, 1756.

Football practice takes place on Wednesdays and Fridays.

However, the names of seasons are not written with a capital:

Like cricket, baseball is played in the summer.

Do not write *"... in the Summer".

(c) The names of languages are always written with a capital letter. Be careful about this; it's a very common mistake.

Juliet speaks English, French, Italian and Portuguese.

I need to work on my Spanish irregular verbs.

Among the major languages of India are Hindi, Gujarati and Tamil.

These days, few students study Latin and Greek.

Note, however, that names of disciplines and school subjects are not capitalized unless they happen to be the names of languages:

I'm doing A-levels in history, geography and English.

Newton made important contributions to physics and mathematics.

She is studying French literature.

(d) Words that express a connection with a particular place must be capitalized when they have their literal meanings. So, for example, French must be capitalized when it means `having to do with France':

The result of the French election is still in doubt.

The American and Russian negotiators are close to agreement.

There are no mountains in the Dutch landscape.

She has a dry Mancunian sense of humour.

(The word Mancunian means `from Manchester'.)

However, it is not necessary to capitalize these words when they occur as parts of fixed phrases and don't express any direct connection with the relevant places:

Please buy some danish pastries.

In warm weather, we keep our french windows open.

I prefer russian dressing on my salad.

Why the difference? Well, a danish pastry is merely a particular sort of pastry; it doesn't have to come from Denmark. Likewise, french windows are merely a particular kind of window, and russian dressing is just a particular variety of salad dressing. Even in these cases, you can capitalize these words if you want to, as long as you are consistent about it. But notice how convenient it can be to make the difference:

In warm weather, we keep our french windows open.

After nightfall, French windows are always shuttered.

In the first example, french windows just refers to a kind of window; in the second, French windows refers specifically to windows in France.

(e) In the same vein, words that identify nationalities or ethnic groups must be capitalized:

The Basques and the Catalans spent decades struggling for autonomy.

The Serbs and the Croats have become bitter enemies.

Norway's most popular singer is a Sami from Lapland.

(An aside: some ethnic labels which were formerly widely used are now regarded by many people as offensive and have been replaced by other labels. Thus, careful writers use Black, not Negro; native American, not Indian or red Indian; native Australian, not Aborigine. You are advised to follow suit.)

(f) Formerly, the words black and white, when applied to human beings, were never capitalized. Nowadays, however, many people prefer to capitalize them because they regard these words as ethnic labels comparable to Chinese or Indian:

The Rodney King case infuriated many Black Americans.

You may capitalize these words or not, as you prefer, but be consistent.

(g) Proper names are always capitalized. A proper name is a name or a title that refers to an individual person, an individual place, an individual institution or an individual event. Here are some examples:

The study of language was revolutionized by Noam Chomsky.

The Golden Gate Bridge towers above San Francisco Bay.

There will be a debate between Professor Lacey and Doctor Davis.

The Queen will address the House of Commons today.

Many people mistakenly believe that Mexico is in South America.

My friend Julie is training for the Winter Olympics.

Next week President Clinton will be meeting Chancellor Kohl.

Observe the difference between the next two examples:

We have asked for a meeting with the President.

I would like to be the president of a big company.

In the first, the title the President is capitalized because it is a title referring to a specific person; in the second, there is no capital, because the word president does not refer to anyone in particular. (Compare We have asked for a meeting with President Wilson and *I would like to be President Wilson of a big company.) The same difference is made with some other words: we write the Government and Parliament when we are referring to a particular government or a particular parliament, but we write government and parliament when we are using the words generically. And note also the following example:

The patron saint of carpenters is Saint Joseph.

Here Saint Joseph is a name, but patron saint is not and gets no capital.

There is a slight problem with the names of hazily defined geographical regions. We usually write the Middle East and Southeast Asia, because these regions are now regarded as having a distinctive identity, but we write central Europe and southeast London, because these regions are not thought of as having the same kind of identity. Note, too, the difference between South Africa (the name of a particular country) and southern Africa (a vaguely defined region). All I can suggest here is that you read a good newspaper and keep your eyes open.

Observe that certain surnames of foreign origin contain little words that are often not capitalized, such as de, du, da, von and van. Thus we write Leonardo da Vinci, Ludwig van Beethoven, General von Moltke and Simone de Beauvoir. On the other hand, we write Daphne Du Maurier and Dick Van Dyke, because those are the forms preferred by the owners of the names. When in doubt, check the spelling in a good reference book.

A few people eccentrically prefer to write their names with no capital letters at all, such as the poet e. e. cummings and the singer k. d. lang. These strange usages should be respected.

(h) The names of distinctive historical periods are capitalized:

London was a prosperous city during the Middle Ages.

Britain was the first country to profit from the Industrial Revolution.

The Greeks were already in Greece during the Bronze Age.

(i) The names of festivals and holy days are capitalized:

We have long breaks at Christmas and Easter.

During Ramadan, one may not eat before sundown.

The feast of Purim is an occasion for merrymaking.

Our church observes the Sabbath very strictly.

The children greatly enjoy Hallowe'en.

(j) Many religious terms are capitalized, including the names of religions and of their followers, the names or titles of divine beings, the titles of certain important figures, the names of important events and the names of sacred books:

An atheist is a person who does not believe in God.

The principal religions of Japan are Shinto and Buddhism.

The Indian cricket team includes Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Parsees.

The Lord is my shepherd.

The Prophet was born in Mecca.

The Last Supper took place on the night before the Crucifixion.

The Old Testament begins with Genesis.

Note, however, that the word god is not capitalized when it refers to a pagan deity:

Poseidon was the Greek god of the sea.

(k) In the title or name of a book, a play, a poem, a film, a magazine, a newspaper or a piece of music, a capital letter is used for the first word and for every significant word (that is, a little word like the, of, and or in is not capitalized unless it is the first word):

I was terrified by The Silence of the Lambs.

The Round Tower was written by Catherine Cookson.

Bach's most famous organ piece is the Toccata and Fugue in D Minor.