I have just now (1:30 pm, 11 April 2012) received a copy of the new book “Mr J
W Lewin, Painter & Naturalist” by Richard Neville. The book was published in
2012 by NewSouth Publishing, University of New South Wales Press Ltd.
Considering the current discussion on capitalising common names of birds (and
my personal preference for that to be so) I was immensely relieved to find that
the common names of the birds referred to in the book have been capitalised.
That has been done not only in the quotes from Lewin’s own descriptions but
also in the words of the author.
So, it looks like there are publishers who can be influenced to do the “right”
thing.
Incidentally, it is not only “style guides” produced by representatives of the
publishing world which maintain that common names of fauna and flora should not
be capitalised but even the odd eminent linguistics professor is of that
opinion, unfortunately.
Pam Peters, in her “The Cambridge Australian English STYLE GUIDE” (my constant
companion whenever I am writing seriously) advocates not capitalising common
names of fauna and flora. It would seem that even language professors get it
wrong now and then.
The book?
Even though this is a ‘paperback’ (220 wide by 260 high), the artwork from a
number of artists as well as J W Lewin is wonderful; I can see I will have a
very enjoyable time with this book. The story might even be interesting as well.
Bob Inglis
Sandstone Point
Qld
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