On Monday, June 28, 1999 9:34 PM, Ace Sanchez [SMTP:jsa@fl.net.au]
wrote:

I thought "Pokemon" was just a normal type of noun? You know,
like

"people".

Pokemon are a species aren't they?

Of course, I can't verify the way they do it in the manga since
every

letter

is in capitals *sigh*

Sorry. Lurker's correct. Anyone could have made that mistake.
Don't feel
bad.

I don't. I feel happy ^_^. Now I know the answer to a question I've
always
wondered. So its *always* capitalised no matter the way the word is
used ...

I have to disagree with this though.  Any Nintendo book or manual is
going to capitalize it because it's a trademark, and it's the name of
the game.  They want to emphasize it (and any other word containing
"poke") as part of their marketing strategy.  But in the context of the
Pokemon world, it doesn't make sense for a word like pokemon to be
capitalized, any more than we capitalize the words plant or animal.  Any
object that becomes that pervasive in a society will be a common noun
and not a proper noun, unless it's being used in the context of a
scientific text.  Same thing with species names.  We don't capitalize
the word dog, and I doubt the people of Pokeworld (for lack of a better
name ^_^) would capitalize the word "pikachu" if they were just
referring to the group of animals.  But I could see there being a
scientific name like Homo Sapiens Sapiens or something like that that
you might want to capitalize.  And of course "Pikachu" used as a name
would be capitalized.  Think of it this way.  If you say "My mom went to
the store," you don't capitalize the word "mom" because it's being used
as a noun describing the entire group of humans known as moms, with "my"
specifying which mom it is.  If you say "Hey, Mom, are you going to the
store?" then the word "mom" should be capitalized because you're
addressing a person and using it as a person's name.  I think you need
to look beyond the company publications and consider what would be the
most likely accepted practice in the world that you are writing about.
 

Jennifer

jcaliff@nsai-petro.com       http://www.topher.net/~jcaliff/iserlohn.htm

Broken mirror, a million shades of light
The old echo fades away
But just you and I can find the answer and then
We can run to the end of the world
-"Small of Two Pieces" lyrics by Masato Kato, end theme of Xenogears