Capitalization in Titles

Other reasons for inconsistent/poor capitalization include (but aren't limited to):

• laziness
• ignorance
• aesthetics

Also, I don't like how you're implying there's only one correct standard for capitalization (although I do use just about every rule you've given). It would be nice if everyone used the same style guidelines, but there are different systems out there (MLA, Chicago, etc.). As long as people are consistent with how they name things, I don't really care, although I'll correct if the capitalization looks really bad to me. And as a few have said, cover capitalization trumps all for me.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

I think what he's getting at is that sometimes it's not all translated. Not all tracks have to be translated because they're already in English on the cover. And so, if you don't have to translate them and their capitalization isn't "proper," so to speak, what then?

Check out the tracklisting of Konohana 3 ~On the Other Side of a False Shadow~ Sound Collection+α. Notice how three tracks, 1, 7, and 19, have inconsistent capitalization.

Sorry about the small text size on this cover scan. I couldn't find any better ones.



Here's an abbreviated tracklisting, listing only the tracks with English in the names, as they appear on the cover:

1). off ground
2). Vacation
4). Warm Feelings
5). Heavy Tension
6). Oppression
7). Lonely Heart
11). Weakly Motion
13). Reason
15). Conviction
17). Deliver me −救い− (the Japanese means "help," but that's not important)
19). jesusが見えない (+α 2) ("cannot be seen," again not relevant)

Assuming the translator translates everything on the album perfectly with regards to capitalization, but retains the capitalization of words already in English, you'll end up with three inconsistently capitalized tracks compared with the rest of the album, numbers 1, 17, 19. To someone who just looks at the tracklisting without context (as I tried to have you do in the second paragraph), it'll seem the translator did a sloppy job.

Now, I'm definitely not saying that this is what happened with the Symphonia album, since I couldn't find a tracklisting scan anywhere. But, if I remember correctly, #gamemp3s usually preserves capitalization for English words that appear on covers as I did above, whether or not they would usually be capitalized. I might just be talking out of my ass there, though.

Whether or not you should correct capitalization on covers is another matter. Maybe the composer did make an error because of poor English skills, or maybe it's just stylistic and the composer wants the title to appear as it does with inconsistent capitalization. I've seen that one argued both ways, and there's no really good way to resolve that short of contacting the composer and finding out his/her intentions. :\

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by ashmountains

Correct! (Except for that 'he' bit)

Spoiler:

heh my bad

Originally Posted by Spikey

And back to my point- why is it only capitalization that raises people's ire? Surely the moronic translations are more annoying to have, where you can't easily find a track, than one letter capitalised or not.

Probably because it's much harder for the average person to tell if a track's poorly translated. Capitalization rules are taught in grade school, but generally Japanese isn't, so people honestly don't know any better (and it would be wrong to expect them to). That's why things like "June Mermaid" persist for so long. :\

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

eighth blackbird. Notice the impeccable capitalization of everything EXCEPT the band's name in the bio paragraphs.

I hate this whole "no sense of capitalization" argument. Is it completely impossible that anyone in the country of Japan knows proper English and capitalization rules? Is it completely unfathomable that someone, despite knowing the rules, would nevertheless want to deviate from them? How do you know that the composer doesn't know exactly what he's doing? It seems awfully haughty to me to think you know the intentions of someone who writes twenty words on the back of a CD case more than the person himself.

I can see that a Japanese person who learns English might be more likely to choose different capitalization for stylistic reasons because they have less of an upbringing in capitalization, and so feel more comfortable with breaking the rules. I will admit that you see this kind of deviance quite a bit more frequently on foreign albums than you do with domestic ones, and the fact that they have no natural capitalization in their native language is a pretty nice, logical explanation (and one I hadn't thought of before this thread). But handwaving any perceived error with an "it's not their language, so they don't know any better" is pretty damn presumptuous, because there's no way you can know whether a composer is fluent in English and knows exactly what he's doing with the language.

Now, correcting capitalization without regard to intent, THAT'S a defensible position, albeit one I don't follow either. Would you capitalize "anyone lived in a pretty how town" too?

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by tenseiken

We're getting a little far from the original purpose (that being capitalization in track titles) now, aren't we?

Yeah. I wanted to come up with an English song with an arbitrarily capitalized name, but I couldn't think of any off the top of my head. Maybe you could imagine it was a musical rendition recorded on a CD or something.

I was speaking idiomatically.