Regarding Proper Nouns
08 October 2004
General convention holds that a ‘proper noun’ is a noun that refers to a specific (named) person, place, or thing. There are two other rules that allegedly attach to proper nouns: first, that such nouns are capitalized and, second, that such nouns are not preceded by an article. Of these properties assigned to proper nouns, only the general convention applies all the time. All proper nouns name a specific person, place, or thing. As you will shortly see (or as you already may have noticed), proper nouns are not always capitalized, and many proper nouns that we use every day are preceded by a ‘the’.
Not all nouns that could be described as proper nouns are capitalized. The government of the United States of America, for example, does refer to a specific thing for which there is no other name. To call it the ‘ruling body’ would go against convention – ‘the government’ is the name we have decided upon, and yet, it is not capitalized. (There is often an exception made when referring to the executive or administrative branch of a specific polity – e.g. ‘U.S. Government agents’, or the U.K. Government.) Likewise, ‘my grandmother’ most certainty refers to a specific person – I might never refer to her as anything else, yet, as a descriptor, it is not conventionally capitalized (unlike the President of the United States). However, if I use the term as an appellation, ‘Grandmother’ becomes capitalized.
Tangentially, there is certain disagreement as to whether ‘the earth’, ‘the moon’ and ‘the sun’ should be capitalized, and whether they should have articles. There are three prevailing styles: 1.) not capitalized unless appearing in a list with other named planets or stars (sometimes dropping the article); 2.) capitalized while retaining the article; and 3.) capitalized without the retaining the article. Whichever one of these you use largely depends on what style manual you refer to. My personal preference is ‘the earth’, ‘the moon’, and ‘the sun’ when referred to alone, but ‘Earth’, ‘the Moon’, and ‘the Sun’ when joined by other heavenly bodies such as Saturn and Neptune. Given that there are competing, yet equally legitimate style preferences regarding nouns such as these (and such as those in the previous paragraph), it would be ridiculous to state that the ‘capitalization rule’ applies in all cases. This example also shows that the ‘no article’ rule does not hold constant.
Regarding the ‘no article’ rule, consider the following: ‘the President of the United States’, ‘the United States of America’, ‘the Roman Empire’, ‘the State of Florida’, and ‘the United Kingdom’. All of these are capitalized proper nouns and they are all preceded by a ‘the’. No one would suggest that the presence of an article makes these into common nouns. The idea that a proper noun cannot have an article is, in a word, nonsense.
The more experience you get writing in English, the more you will come to realize that superficial English usage is largely a matter of preference; what is important is that you are consistent. If you say ‘Government agents’ at one point in your paper, it would not do to say ‘government agents’ at a later point. Likewise, if you settle on ‘Earth’ when referring to the terrestrial globe by itself, do not turn around and call it ‘the earth’ at some later point. Consistency is always important and it covers a multitude of transgressions. In academic writing, it is important to choose a style (or a consistently used amalgamation of rules from different styles) and stick with it. You have some leeway in capitalization and article usage with proper nouns, as seen here, but for most proper nouns, there are hard and fast rules that always apply.
Copyright © 2004
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