Grammar queen

[ciphergoth]

English usage question arising out of a discussion on a wiki. I have my own opinion, but I don't want to bias the poll, so here it is...

[Poll #681358]

Comments

[taimatsu]

Depends how poncy/surrealist/otherwise strange the work in question is. If it's any old show, and the person just happens not to be named, then 'the pilot'. However, if the namelessness is a big important Thing which is Meaningful or Symbolic, then 'the Pilot'. (People do this in those modern-parable stories about runaway trains etc.) Never 'The Pilot' except at the start of a sentence. People do that with 'The Queen' and I *still* think it's wrong.

[wechsler.livejournal.com]

*nods* it's kind of the same "voice" as "The Prisoner" or "The Joker" - someone's "Title" rather than their "title" perhaps.

Or maybe I just need more sleep.

[zotz]

. . . although to an extent it would depend on whether the pilot was a major character. If there were lots of mentions, then it might be more natural to treat it as a title (and therefore capitalised) rather than as a job description.

[mskala.livejournal.com]

Capitalization is for the starts of sentences, and for proper nouns. There might be a few other cases, but none relevant - in the sample sentence, "pilot" isn't a proper noun or the start of a sentence, and "the" certainly isn't, so there you go.

Possible exception: if being a "Pilot" indicates some special status such as membership in the Worshipful Brotherhood of Pilots; then it's not just a job description but a title. Just like you'd say that England is ruled by a queen (common noun - it means female monarch) but the Queen rules England (proper noun - it's her job title and is used like a name).

If "The Pilot" were an actual name, it could conceivably get caps on both words. For instance, in Read Or Die there's a character who uses the name "The Paper"; both "The" and "Paper" get caps.

[mskala.livejournal.com]

...and I wrote that before consciously noticing taimatsu's icon, too!

I'm Moya!

[dreamsewing.livejournal.com]

I put "the Pilot", as "The Pilot" is not the character name. However, if it is in reference to the show I think it is, it would be only "Pilot" with out "the" because that is what the character IS named on the Henson site, and he's referred to as simply "Pilot" in the show.
If it is not that show, then I still would capitalise "Pilot" in the case of title/rank, if there is no "Captain" on board, then "the Pilot" would be a valid title/ rank.

Re: I'm Moya!

[lilitufire.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes - I'd forgotten Farscape. If it's Farscape, I'd use just Pilot, like a given name.

Re: I'm Moya!

[thekumquat.livejournal.com]

I thought Farscape too.

[hughe.livejournal.com]

it does depend on the storey i supose... but i dont think "the pilot" is proper enough top be capitalised...

For example i would capitalise "The Black Pirate", but not "the pirate"

Or alternativley, i could say "He asked Pilot where they were".

[feorag.livejournal.com]

I'm only using 'Pilot' because it's a specific character, and it might as well be a proper noun. Otherwise it'd be the third option. Specific artistic exception.

[webcowgirl.livejournal.com]

Even though I said "the pilot," if I was writing in my blog I'd say, "The Pilot," for that would be his name and that is my writing style. Thus, "I went to the party and spanked The Hot One."

[swiftangel.livejournal.com]

I chose the second because I imagine the character would be listed in any scrip as "Pilot", though if he's the only pilot in the story then there the third would be just as valid.

[lovingboth]

I'd be ok with them all, but I think it depends on how significant a character they are.

If they're a continuing character, 'Pilot'.

If they're a redshirt, 'pilot'.

[lizw.livejournal.com]

If they are a trivial non-recurring character, then "the pilot". If they are a recurring character, then "the Pilot" if they appear in the credits as "Pilot" and "The Pilot" if they appear in the credits as "The Pilot". I don't recognise the show, so for the purposes of the poll, I guessed.

[zbyszek.livejournal.com]

I agree with mskala. If "pilot" is a proper noun, it should be capitalised. Since it is used with an article, it cannot be a proper noun. If it were a title, it should be capitalised, but then it would still not be used with an article and would be more natural in the given quote as a prefix to a name, e.g. "He asked Pilot [Wiggins] where they were."

[ex-ms-katoni171.livejournal.com]

Depends how big a character the pilot is. If he's a minor character, the last one. If, OTOH, we're talking something like Lost, Twin Peaks or similar where the Pilot is a major character but we never know his actual name, then it'd be number two.

[ladycat.livejournal.com]

I want to give pilot a capital P because you're talking about a specific pilot and it's a job title and therefore a proper noun.

Despite being one of the company S.L.A.G members I'm rpetty shit at this sort of thing.