ГЛАВНИ ИЛИ МАЛКИ БУКВИ? ПРОБЛЕМИ ПРИ УПОТРЕБАТА ИМ В СВЕТЛИНАТА НА ЕЗИКОВОТО КОНСУЛТИРАНЕ
CAPITAL OR LOWERCASE LETTERS? ISSUES IN THEIR USE: INSIGHTS FROM LANGUAGE CONSULTING

Summary/Abstract: This paper analyses questions related to the use of capital and lowercase letters as encountered in language consulting practice. Drawing on archived user inquiries addressed to the Language Consultation Service, the author classifies query types based on the issues raised: questions concerning the distinction between proper and common nouns, as well as inquiries that fall beyond this dichotomy (problematic cases within the category of proper names, stylistic and syntactic use of capital letters, adjectives derived from proper names, etc.). In addition, the author categorises the questions based on the types of names involved. The analysis reveals that difficulties with capitalisation and lowercase usage arise across all main functions of capital letters: morphological, syntactic, stylistic and graphic. The significant demand for guidance underscores the challenges language speakers face in determining whether a word or phrase constitutes a proper name and, consequently, whether it requires capitalisation. Speakers also have difficulty deciding whether a particular word is a part of a compound proper name. Most inquiries about capitalisation refer to names of institutions, organisations, administrative bodies and their subdivisions, as well as territorial and administrative units. These entities are often named in ways that allow for both proper and common noun usage (descriptive phrases), or represent cases where capitalisation is heavily context-dependent.

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