Grammar question 2

[Sakina]

That does clear it up. The second picture they are talking in general not about just one lieutenant. So in that case as it is not a particular one the Capital is not used.

Does that help you at all?

I'm not sure that it does. You're saying that in both cases the capitalization is correct and the rule is wrong? Can you please elaborate on that?

[...] This rule is widely disregarded, however. It's one of the ones people seem to have most difficulty with.

As much as that surprises me, you'd think that at least on official DVDs they'd make sure that even those rules aren't disregarded.

If you want disregarded English rules in subtitles, I recommend watching the closed captions on live broadcasts on television.  They have them there for all the deaf people and for use in bars and stuff, but the number of typos they make is just hilarious.

There's also the fact it sometimes appears that English is too complicated even for those that speak it.  Unless you decide to make English grammar your life's work it's very unlikely that you'll have perfect grammar all the time.  Things like commas always throw people off (myself included).  Unless I go back and spell check what I write I do often misuse commas quite a bit.  It's accidental but it happens.  And then there's just the bad grammar that we speak every day... "Don't need no stinkin' badges," "Eet mor chiken"   <--Bad examples

.... I'm pretty off topic now aren't I...

[Sakina]

The rule for capitalization is that only proper nouns and the beginnings of sentances should be capitalized. Proper nouns are names of people and places and the like. This rule is widely disregarded, however. It's one of the ones people seem to have most difficulty with.

I wouldn't quite say it's being disregarded and instead say that the language is evolving. Like how "alright" and "awhile" are taking over, the language is gonna look like German soon with all the capitals.

We American just like to be fast.    So fast that soonwewon'tevenusespaces!

[mangaluva]

[...] This rule is widely disregarded, however. It's one of the ones people seem to have most difficulty with.

As much as that surprises me, you'd think that at least on official DVDs they'd make sure that even those rules aren't disregarded.

Well, it's more that it's disregarded colloquially, and for subs on DVDs that are sometimes written by those who speak english as a second language, it's not the easiest rule to stick to.

[Callid]

I wouldn't quite say it's being disregarded and instead say that the language is evolving. Like how "alright" and "awhile" are taking over, the language is gonna look like German soon with all the capitals.

I like the German capitalizing rules. German sentences are so easy to read. Anytime I try to read a German sentence without correct capitalization, it slows me down a lot. I'm able to read German so much faster than English...
However, this may be because I'm a German native speaker 

[Akonyl]

That does clear it up. The second picture they are talking in general not about just one lieutenant. So in that case as it is not a particular one the Capital is not used.

Does that help you at all?

I'm not sure that it does. You're saying that in both cases the capitalization is correct and the rule is wrong? Can you please elaborate on that?

I get what sstimson's saying (it's pretty much what I was saying also), but I'm not exactly sure on how to elaborate on it.

Basically, it has to do with the intimacy of the speaker in regards to the subject. In the first example, the lieutenant who they're referring to is someone they know and are familiar with, thus they use it like a name, and call him "the Lieutenant". In cases like this, the rank is capitalized as it's being used as sort of a nickname for someone you're somewhat familiar with.

However, in the second example, they don't know the lieutenant they're talking about. He's just some random subordinate of Proposition Joe, who happens to have the rank of lieutenant. So, when they refer to him, they just mean "this inconsequential person who is a lieutenant".