NAIVE RULES OF THE USE OF UPPERCASE AND LOWER CASE

LETTERS (BASED ON THE MATERIAL OF THE

CONSTRUCTION WITH THE X-CASE LETTER Y)

Elena L. Vilinbakhova

St. Petersburg State University

1. BACKGROUND

The use of uppercase and lowercase letters in Russian:

• purely orthographic Example: uppercase letter in the beginning of the

sentence or in proper names like Alexander • loaded with additional meaning, showing

author’s ideology / religion / feelings towards the described object

Example: uppercase letter in Rodina ‘motherland’

1. Background

“Orthographic” cases – stable and unambiguous;

“Meaningful” cases – not so evident → need a comment s bol’shoi / malen’koi bukvy ‘with uppercase / lowercase letter’.

Metalanguage comment in oral communication → metalanguage comment in written texts → independent construction with the x-case letter Y.

2. METHOD

• Search option in…       the Russian National Corpus        Russian language Internet resources • Search terms:1) partially filled construction s … bukvy ‘with the

… letter’, 2) particular variants: s bol’shoi / propisnoi /

zaglavnoi / malen’koi / strochnoi bukvy ‘with uppercase / lowercase letter’

3. NAÏVE RULES: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION3.1 General remarks

1) Most often found in literature, press and informal Internet communication.

2) Used as a modifier of a word or language expression

3) Includes 4 components:

(1) preposition s ‘with’, (2) adjective describing the case (upper / lower), (3) noun bukvy ‘letter GEN.SG’, (4) the first letter of the word

3.1. General remarks

Most popular variant: S BOL’SHOI BUKVY (lit. ‘with big letter’) ‘with the uppercase letter’

CHELOVEK S BOL’SHOI BUKVY ‘a person with the uppercase letter’. A person with high moral virtues [Dictionary of Ozhegov and Shvedova online 2009-2012]

S BOL’SHOI BUKVY ‘with the uppercase letter’. Of the highest grade, in the full sense of the word, true, genuine, authentic. [Dictionary of synonyms ASIS of Trishin 2010]

3.2. Uppercase and lowercase letters in

different parts of speech FORMAL RULES: upper-case letter is used: • in a certain syntactic position (“in order to highlight the

beginning of particular segments of the text” [Lopatin 2009]);

• in different kinds of names and titles; • in a special stylistic way, “in the contexts where the

author ascribes to the word a special high sense” [Ibid.]. ! Not all parts of speech can be written with the upper-

case letter regardless of their syntactic position or their occurrence in different denominations; such option is restricted to nouns and pronouns.

3.2. Uppercase and lowercase letters in different parts of speech

NAÏVE RULES: Construction with the x-case letter Y is used as a modifier not only for nouns and pronouns, but also verbs, adjectives, adverbs, particles Da ‘yes’ and Net ‘no’.

(1) Te zadachi, kotorye Vy pered nami postavite, budut vypolneny ne prosto horosho, a horosho s bol’shoi bykvy (Internet)

‘The tasks that you give to us will be accomplished not only well, but well with uppercase letter’

3.3. Variation in size of uppercase and lowercase letters

FORMAL RULES: two possibilities

bol’shaia bukva (lit. ‘big letter’) ‘uppercase letter’

malen’kaia bukva (lit. ‘small letter’) ‘lowercase letter’

 

NAÏVE RULES: In construction with the x-case letter Y the list of adjectives includes not only…

3.3. Variation in size of uppercase and lowercase letters

bolshaia ‘big, uppercase’

propisnaia ‘uppercase’

zaglavnaia ‘uppercase’

malen’kaia ‘small, lowercase’

strochnaia ‘lowercase’

BUT ALSO

gigantskaia ‘giant’

ogromnaia ‘enormous’

ochen’ bol’shaia ‘very big’

mal’usen’kaia ‘wee’

kroshechnaia ‘tiny’, etc.

3.3. Variation in size of uppercase and lowercase letters

! The meaning of “normal-sized” uppercase or lowercase letters and their intensified counterparts is different.

(2) Vy pevets ne tol’ko s bol’shoi, no i s gigantskoi bukvy!!! (Internet)

‘You are a singer not only with a capital (lit. big- E.V.), but with a giant letter!!!’

3.4. Naïve semantics of uppercase and lowercase letters

FORMAL RULES: uppercase letter is the marked member of semantic opposition, expressing…

       the singularity of an object in denominations        respect in some religious notions and pronoun

Vy ‘you’       unspecified ‘special high sense’ (see above). The deviations: lowercase letter can occur in

proper names with collective meaning (zhuchka ‘Zhucka is a usual dog’s name’ about a dog).

NAÏVE RULES: Uppercase first letter is positive and lowercase first letter is negative.

Meanings of UPPERCASE letter (s bol’shoi / propisnoi / zaglavnoi / etc. bukvy ‘with the uppercase letter Y’):

1) correspondence of the denotatum to some perfect image or ideal prototype of the category

(3) Znaiu, chto ia romantic do mozga kostei, chto veriu Nastoiashchuiu liubov’ s zaglavnoi bukvy (Internet)

‘I know I am a romantic to the morrow of my bones, as I believe in Real Love with capital letter’

    

     2)  high significance of the denotatum(4) Put’ v Sant’iago-de-Kompostely stanovitsia sobytiem s bol’shoi

bukvy, a ne zhalkim podobiem nekoego zabega na sverhdalniuiu distantsii (RNC)

‘The way to Santiago de Compostela becomes an event with capital letter, not a shadow of some ultra long-distance round’

   3)    singularity and specificity (5) A vot ego preemnik kak raz i mozhet okasat’sia tem samym

Preemnikom s bol’shoi bukvy, o kotorom Putin ob’’avil 12 fevralia (RNC)

‘And his successor can turn out to be exactly The Successor with capital letter, about whom Putin made an announcement on February, 12’

      4) intensity of the denotatum’s properties(6) S vashimi rasuzhdeniiami pro takih, kak ia, nado s

bol’shoi bukvy krichat’. (RNC)‘With your reasoning, it is necessary to shout with capital

letter about people like me’       5) high quality of the denotatum(7) Kollektivnyi genii byl (i priznaval sebia) diletantom, no

<…> diletantom s bol’shoi bukvy (RNC)“Collective genius” was (and acknowledged himself) as a

“dilettante”, but <…> a dilettante “with uppercase letter”

Meanings of LOWERCASE letter (s malen’koi / mal’usen’koi / kroshechnoi / etc. bukvy ‘with the lowercase letter Y’):

 1) ordinary, unremarkable nature of the denotatum(8) Pochinka komp’iuternoi electroniki, k sozhaleniiu, ne hobbi, a rabota s

malen’koi bukvy, neredko rutina‘The repair of computer electronicas, unfortunately, is not a hobby, but a

job with lowercase letter, often a routine’   2) low quality of the denotatum(9) Takoi sebe doctorishka s maliusen’koi bukvy c pretenziei na velikogo

vracha. (Internet)<About a doctor> ‘<Such a doctor with tiny letter with pretension on being

a great doctor’

 

     3) inferiority of the denotatum(10) Soglashus’ s Vami v tom, chto zhenshchina bez muzhchiny – eto

zhenshchina s malen’koi bukvy (Internet)‘I agree with you that a woman without a man is a woman with

lowercase letter’

 The opposition in contamination:(11) Literatura byvaet s bol’shoi i s malen’koi bukvy, inache

govoria, literature elitarnaia i literatura kommercheskaia (Internet)

‘Literature can be with uppercase and with lowercase letter, in other words, elite literature and commercial literature’

3.5. Uppercase and lowercase letters in language games

1) the referent should be called with a certain offensive lexeme, beginning with the same or different letter.

(12) Chudak s bol’shoi bukvy M (Internet)

‘Eccentric man with capital M’

2) the referent possesses some feature

(13) Zhenshchina with capital (lit. big) ZH (Internet)

‘Woman with uppercase W’/ ‘Woman with big A<ss>’

Ambiguity: 1) positive meaning ‘perfect woman’

2) ironic meaning ‘woman with a big ass’.

3.6. Uppercase and lowercase letters in oral speech

FORMAL RULES: Upper/lowercase letters used in written texts.

NAÏVE RULES: Construction used with speech verbs to speak, to pronounce, etc.; upper/lowercase letters have intonation patterns.

(14) Ya govoriu slovo “Kultura” c bol’shoi bukvy (RNC)‘I am saying the word “Culture” with capital letter’ (15) Familiiu Berii on spetsial’no proisnios s malen’koi bukvy,

daby vyrasit’ svoio k nemu prezrenie (Internet)‘He pronounced the surname Beria with lowercase letter on

purpose in order to express his disdain’

4. CONCLUSION

Naïve rules, derived from linguistic behavior of construction with the x-case letter y, differ in many ways from orthographical norms of Russian language.

What if we put them into action?

4. Conclusion

1) Uppercase letters can be used with different parts of speech

I want to read a Good book. ‘very good’Не Cried. ‘very loud’ 2) Uppercase and lowercase letters can differ in

size from tiny to enormous

She is Beautiful. ‘extremely beautiful’

She is a woman. ‘a miserable woman’

4. Conclusion   3) Uppercase letter is positive, lowercase letter is

negativeSasha is my Friend ‘a good, real friend’Igor is my friend ‘not a close one, more like acquaintance’ 4) First letter can be interpreted in two dimensions,

implicating another (offensive) word, or even changedJohn is so F/Cool.Uppercase and lowercase letters occur in oral

communicationRule # 15: In the White House, always pronounce

“president” with uppercase letter.

Thank you for your attention!