On Sun, 12 Oct 1997, JWPicard wrote:
>
> On the other hand, Johanna, I still contend that the following two are
> equal examples:
>
>                 I wondered, What sort of animal is that?
>
>                 The question is, What should I do now?
>
> I wonder, though if it's a question of emphasis.
> The cap adds emphasis to the question. Or is that too far a stretch??
> I guess I'm thinking there might be more than one legitimate way to do
> this, depending on one's intention. What think ye?
>
In my experience, when caps are used for emphasis, the whole word or
phrase is capitalized. I think the people who are wanting to capitalize
here are wanting to do so because they think the question needs a capital
letter as well as appropriate end punctuation.
 
I don't know where my solid intuition comes from, but the only way I can
see of dealing with this sentence is the one I suggested,
 
The question is, what should I do now?
 
Obviously, lots of other people have other opinions. My training as a
linguist tells me to accept variation; but I tend to be less tolerant for
formal written English. I'm surprised there is so much variation here, but
I guess I should not be. Do other listers perceive a difference between
the following, in which punctuation signals a different intonation and
stress pattern:
 
The problem is, he won't talk to me. ("the problem IS, pause")
The problem is he won't talk to me. ("the PROBLEM is, no pause")
 
Perhaps items like the first of these two and the expression under
discussion are special constructions which require special punctuation.
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Assistant Professor, Linguistics              ~
English Department, California Polytechnic State University   ~
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407                                     ~
Tel. (805)-756-2184  E-mail: [log in to unmask]      ~
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