A supercut of movie scenes. A little fudging in some instances, but the words are there. I continue to wonder what databases people use to find these snippets of dialogue.
It would take a fair amount of time, but I suppose you can mass-download subtitles of films from public databases, search for occurrence of capitals' name, then retrieve each scene.
Personally, I would say their own memory. In several cases (Bismarck being one), the individual speaking was not actually saying the name of the Capitol or State, but rather was referring to something else. I'm thinking along the lines of not Bismarck, North Dakota, but the Nazi German Battleship Bismarck; same name but different meaning or context.
state capital = seat of state government (not capitalized)
state capitol = building in which the state legislature meets (not capitalized)
the Capitol = where the U.S. Congress meets in Washington, DC (always capitalized, never plural)
"Capital" for "capitol" or vice-versa is a very, very common mistake these days; I even saw it in the NYTimes recently. I'm fighting a rear-guard action here.
'Stan, are you familiar with this site?
http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/
If not, have a look. You (and others here, I'll bet) will love it.
It would take a fair amount of time, but I suppose you can mass-download subtitles of films from public databases, search for occurrence of capitals' name, then retrieve each scene.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I would say their own memory. In several cases (Bismarck being one), the individual speaking was not actually saying the name of the Capitol or State, but rather was referring to something else. I'm thinking along the lines of not Bismarck, North Dakota, but the Nazi German Battleship Bismarck; same name but different meaning or context.
ReplyDelete'Stan et al:
ReplyDeletestate capital = seat of state government
(not capitalized)
state capitol = building in which the state legislature meets
(not capitalized)
the Capitol = where the U.S. Congress meets in Washington, DC
(always capitalized, never plural)
"Capital" for "capitol" or vice-versa is a very, very common mistake these days; I even saw it in the NYTimes recently. I'm fighting a rear-guard action here.
'Stan, are you familiar with this site?
http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/
If not, have a look. You (and others here, I'll bet) will love it.
--Swift Loris
Thanks, Swift. I actually had written "capitals" the first time, then changed it to "capitols" when I proof(mis)read the post.
ReplyDeleteFixed.