{"items": [{"author": "Hollis", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/624344571352?comment_id=624344970552", "anchor": "fb-624344970552", "service": "fb", "text": "This typographical convention makes dJ improper's stage name a joke that plays on multiple levels.", "timestamp": "1376530634"}, {"author": "David Chudzicki", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/624344571352?comment_id=624348588302", "anchor": "fb-624348588302", "service": "fb", "text": "The notion of \"rigid designators\" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigid_designation) is important background here -- it maps *roughly* to \"proper __\", but not exactly. The latter is fairly arbitrary, and the former is meant to be fairly natural.", "timestamp": "1376532785"}, {"author": "Daniel", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/624344571352?comment_id=624357300842", "anchor": "fb-624357300842", "service": "fb", "text": "I am coming to see your point, though the examples you used are confusing - \"Londoner\" is definitely a noun, and you used \"Ohoian\" as a noun also. I need to handle capitalization in some reasonable way, so I can't just ignore the distinction as merely typographic. But I see your point that NNPs have different grammatical properties than NNs: one says \"I flew to Russia\", not \"I flew to the Russia\". It doesn't seem like there is any place in which a JJP could be used but not a JJ or vice versa.", "timestamp": "1376536714"}, {"author": "Robert", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/117732328885787456164", "anchor": "gp-1376537797215", "service": "gp", "text": "All your examples are, in fact, nouns. A better example would the friend who complained that Words With Friends wouldn't accept \"Seussian\" (as in, resembling the works of Dr. Seuss).", "timestamp": 1376537797}, {"author": "Robert", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/117732328885787456164", "anchor": "gp-1376537938286", "service": "gp", "text": "And yes, in English we capitalize adjectives and nouns derived from proper nouns (e.g., the word \"English\" itself), but it's just convention; none of the other languages I have any relevant knowledge of (German, French, Italian, Spanish) do this.", "timestamp": 1376537938}, {"author": "Michael", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/624344571352?comment_id=624375878612", "anchor": "fb-624375878612", "service": "fb", "text": "Hoosier should be capitalized: http://civilwar.connerprairie.org/.../Recapturing-the...", "timestamp": "1376565034"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/624344571352?comment_id=624376452462", "anchor": "fb-624376452462", "service": "fb", "text": "@Michael: I'm confused. Looking online yesterday I thought almost all the examples of people using \"hoosier\" had it lowercase, but now I'm seeing mostly capitalized ones.", "timestamp": "1376565906"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/624344571352?comment_id=624376542282", "anchor": "fb-624376542282", "service": "fb", "text": "@Daniel: you're right; I was sloppy with \"noun\" vs \"adjective\".", "timestamp": "1376566024"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/624344571352?comment_id=624376617132", "anchor": "fb-624376617132", "service": "fb", "text": "@David: Is \"David Chudzicki\" a rigid designator? Aren't there possible worlds where that name got applied to someone else?", "timestamp": "1376566162"}, {"author": "Michael", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/624344571352?comment_id=624376716932", "anchor": "fb-624376716932", "service": "fb", "text": "I'm not sure you used ANY examples that are actually adjectives. Now I'm trying to think of some that aren't place-name based (such as Canadian, which is both a noun and an adjective)", "timestamp": "1376566291"}, {"author": "Michael", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/624344571352?comment_id=624377006352", "anchor": "fb-624377006352", "service": "fb", "text": "Ah! Episcopalian, Catholic, etc. all both proper nouns and \"proper\" adjectives. I don't really see a way to distinguish between them being proper adjectives and being regular adjectives derived from proper nouns (with inherited capitalization), though.", "timestamp": "1376566629"}, {"author": "Michael", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/624344571352?comment_id=624377161042", "anchor": "fb-624377161042", "service": "fb", "text": "London, as in \"London taxi\". But that's a proper noun being used as an adjective, so of course it retains its capitalization. Ditto \"New York minute\".", "timestamp": "1376566767"}, {"author": "David Chudzicki", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/624344571352?comment_id=624384641052", "anchor": "fb-624384641052", "service": "fb", "text": "Jeff Kaufman: Sure, then their names and mine would be homonyms, like \"London\" (in England) and \"London\" (in Ontario). Conversely, there are possible worlds where David Chudzicki's parents decided to give him a different name -- but in our language (not theirs), \"David Chudzicki\" can still refer to that person in that world (as I did at the beginning of this sentence).", "timestamp": "1376574866"}, {"author": "Owen", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/624344571352?comment_id=624391008292", "anchor": "fb-624391008292", "service": "fb", "text": "I don't think I've ever seen Canadian bacon or English muffins or French fries", "timestamp": "1376579594"}, {"author": "Todd", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/112947709146257842066", "anchor": "gp-1376841737294", "service": "gp", "text": "What makes 'universe' a proper noun?", "timestamp": 1376841737}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/103013777355236494008", "anchor": "gp-1376873347091", "service": "gp", "text": "@Todd\n\u00a0It's ours? \u00a0Like Moon, Sun, Earth?", "timestamp": 1376873347}, {"author": "Todd", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/112947709146257842066", "anchor": "gp-1376881318037", "service": "gp", "text": "We don't use 'universe' the way we use 'Earth', though. I can ask, \"Do we live in a universe where X?\", but I don't think I can ask \"Do we live on an Earth where X?\". When we talk about 'the universe', aren't we using it more like me talking about 'the couch' when it's contextually obvious I mean the one in my apartment? That is, we're referring to the universe that's our universe, without necessarily implying it's unique in the way Earth is. Or maybe we are treat it as proper in some cases, but not all?", "timestamp": 1376881318}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/103013777355236494008", "anchor": "gp-1376909340437", "service": "gp", "text": "@Todd\n\u00a0\"maybe we are treat it as proper in some cases, but not all?\"\n
\n
\nI think so. \u00a0\"in a universe where X\" is like \"on a moon where X\", but you can also talk about \"the Moon\" and I think \"the Universe\".", "timestamp": 1376909340}]}