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Southern or southern?

nekocat

nekocat

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"Cotton to" is kind of an interesting phrase. It means "take a liking to" or "come to like." To me, it sounds a little bit old-fashioned or maybe a little ( ) or maybe a bit rural. People in the country might use it more.


Which word should it be for parentheses, "Southern" or "southern"?
 
hmm, i guess that depends upon whether you prefer to capitalize "the South" when talking about the region from whence this phrase came. Since "the South" is in reference to an actual place, understood as such-and-such an area in the southern US, you could treat it like a place name, and capitalize it.

so, southern is just an adjective denoting cardinal location, and Southern is an adjective denoting regional affiliation to the southeastern US.
 
I'm going with nice_gaijin here. If it's a specific reference to the geographical region, then capitalize it. If it's a reference to the general direction on the compass, don't.
 
May I ask why are you asking this question, nekocat san? What purpose will be served by any answer? MM
 
I wouldn't capitalize "southern" since it's not a noun. If it's not known in the sentence that the U.S. is being referred to, "the southern U.S." or "the south of the U.S." would be all right. I agree that's it's really just a preference of whether to capitalize "The South" or not.
 
Normally, no, it would not be capitalized. Unless there's a specific region called the Southern region.
 
Living in the south my whole life,excluding a breif stint in Maryland,I've never heard that phrase,and I've lived in just about all the southern states.


to answer your question,my english teachers never said anything when I didn't capitalize it.
 
From your original phrase, the phrase to "cotton on to" or "cotton onto" means to catch onto comething, figure something out or find out about something that you didn't know (and possible weren't meant to), at least in British English.
 
I would say that 'southern' shouldn't be capitalized. However, the South can be classed as an adjective and so may or may not be capitalized, depending on geographical location etc.
 
a noun is always capitalized nothing else is. so figure out what its usage in the sentence is.
 
Sarapva said:
I wouldn't capitalize "southern" since it's not a noun. If it's not known in the sentence that the U.S. is being referred to, "the southern U.S." or "the south of the U.S." would be all right. I agree that's it's really just a preference of whether to capitalize "The South" or not.
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I agree with Sarapva; southern, as used here, is an adjective and therefore should not be capitalized.
 
the nearest to the original phrase I have heard is 'cotton on to' which means to understand or to discover something.

'The posters at Jref soon cottoned on to the fact Chris K was a rather peculiar gentleman'
 
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