A Rant About Grammar - Addressing Certain Proper Nouns
As many of my friends and family will tell you, I am somewhat of a Grammar Nazi when it comes to writing. Now, slang and such don't bother me, and when speaking, I really couldn't give a rat's ass how your grammar is, so long as your point is clear (for instance, there is a difference between "less" and "fewer", but because they mean essentially the same thing, I don't care which one is used). There are some very anal retentive grammatical rules in English, so I'm not anal about everything - in fact, I tend to write how I talk, so I know on many occasions I tend to make several run-ons and repeat words... But mainly, as long as the point of the message is pretty clear, I don't take issue.
However, in writing it is much easier to muddle your meaning and appear much less intelligent than you actually are when you make constant grammatical errors, even minor ones. Now, I understand typos -- I make them all the time -- and I often have trouble spelling certain words without a spellchecker -- but that is one of the handy devices of FireFox and other current browsers -- many have a built-in or easily added-on spell check, so there really is no excuse to at least not be legible if you're typing in your native tongue.
This is why the common "you're/your", "there/they're/their", "its/it's" and "too/two/to" mistakes drive me up a wall. They all have significant different meanings, and, when mixed up, tend to make the writer appear rather stupid. Not bothering to write out SMALL, SIMPLE words such as "you" or "are" also make the writer look quite obnoxious and moronic, and it REALLY makes me hate the text-messaging subculture all the more.
But this is somewhat besides the point. My main rant today is about the use of "Mom", "Dad" "Grandma", "Grandpa" and so on as proper nouns. Technically, messing this up doesn't ruin the meaning of the message if everything else is right, but making this error irritates me to no end for one reason and one reason only:
When directly referring to a person as a "mom/dad/aunt/etc", it is meant as replacing their given name... Meaning like any other given name or title, IT NEEDS TO BE CAPITALIZED.
I know, I know... Many of you may think it's not a big deal, and maybe it's just my neurosis gnawing at me, but I can't get over this mistake, and I really beat myself up for it when I catch myself doing it. Why should it be such a big deal? Well, as I said, it's a proper noun. In replacing a name, it serves as a sort of name itself and denotes a certain amount of respect.
For instance: "Hey Mom... Are you still taking me to school today?"
Imagine this sentence if the speaker were to refer to "Mom" by name...
"Hey Terri... Are you still taking me to school today?"
How would this compare to not properly capitalizing?
"Hey mom... Are you still taking me to school today?" - Might not seem so bad, huh? But again, replace "mom" with the actual name: "Hey terri... Are you still taking me to school today?"
Do you see how off and perhaps even disrespectful that feels? Well, if you're not very good at or into writing and reading, you may not. However, if you are even a little interested in the written word, I hope you can see what I'm saying.
Now, in turn, these words are NOT capitalized if you are merely speaking about the people:
"My mom took me to school today." NOT "My Mom took me to school today."
That one is not as commonly made, it seems, but I figured I should mention it.
I once even had an debate between one of my English professors over this rule because I kept using "Dad" as a proper noun in my paper, but in a few instances I lowercased it because I was merely speaking about him, not as the subject itself. She claimed I had to use one or the other -- capitalize all the time or lowercase all the time. However, it should be noted I am not alone in thinking this. I should have referenced such outside sources to my professor, but, seeing as I'm not really the confrontational sort (and this particular professor also happened to be a very sweet lady who remains one of my all-time favorite teachers), I just went ahead and capitalized all the uses of my parents' titles and let the matter drop.
I'm not bitter about that situation, but it is a good example of how even more intelligent people can find this matter muddled.
And to those friends of mine that may be reading this and think/know/are afraid they are guilty of this... I'm not angry with you, nor ranting about you. This is just another one of my grammar pet peeves I needed to get out of my system. I still love you guys and do not in the slightest think you're stupid.
But if you know you're guilty of it, maybe you should fix it. I know I'd want someone to correct me if I was making a considerable grammatical or spelling error.
Well, that's the end of this rant. I need to get back to work.