Debate - Should Pikachu have a capital P or not?

[Kylie-chan]

Well, Frosty and I were debating that in someone else's fic (lol) so I moved it over here.

Please don't bash anyone else.

Thank you.

Topic: Should Pikachu have a capital P or not?​

Positive: Capital P Negative: lower-case p

(for example should the sentence be like this: "Ash sent out Pikachu" or "Ash sent out pikachu"?)


Oh and by the way, JKaizer advised I put it in this particular forum, not Other Chat, I hope it's allowed.

~DP~

Now for my bit.

I'm for it should - the positive.

Well, for starters, Pikachu is a proper noun. It's the name of not a thing but a "living" creature, and is often implied to be addressed as the name of that individual, not the name of the species. (For example, "Go, Pikachu!" refers to that individual Pikachu as that name, e.g. not like "Go, cat!" but "Go, Fluffy!").

Another interesting example of this is the mum/dad topic, e.g. should it be his Mum went to the shop, or his mum went to the shop. According to my teacher, it should be capital M as it's referring to that individual mother that "he" owns, well, is related to. It's his mother, thus his Mum. But, if it was "the mums sat down", well it's referring to a whole heap of mums, none particularly "belonging" to the child/children.

Pikachu is a name/nickname, just as much as someone would call you, "Hey, Shorty!" not "Hey, shorty!"

DP

 

[jynx]

That's hard...I'd choose "against"(negative) than.


Firstly, I have to say that, it would save some time to type pikachu than Pikachu. :D
Secondly, we Pokemon fans had already accepted the concept of Pokemon being living things on earth, like animals. Such as pomeranians, orcas, cockatoos.

 

[Monzae]

Well, Pikachu should have a capital because it is the name of something, but then again, saying about a group of pikachu shouldn't have to be capitalized because we dont say 'a group of Kittens' very often, do we?

I think it should be capitalised when calling it by its name, but otherwise, like "a pikachu was sitting on the log" should be okay....that's a really good debate subject though!...

I'm on the Ponesigitive side :| I'm sitting on the fence here...it's too difficult to rally on the 'right' answer! ... but call it what you will, it doesn't make any difference to the Pokemon being implied..

 

[Kylie-chan]

In return to Jynx, well, this is not a matter of time, it's a matter of the English language.

You people are all treating Pikachu as if it was an animal, but it's a Pokemon.

a) Nintendo endorsed it with a capital P.
b) Pikachu is, like I said, a name, not a common noun.

(ponesigitive? I learnt something new today XD)

So we have:

Positive: 1
Negative: 1
Ponesigitive: 1

Which makes it a tie.

 

[jynx]

In return to Jynx, well, this is not a matter of time, it's a matter of the English language.

You people are all treating Pikachu as if it was an animal, but it's a Pokemon.

a) Nintendo endorsed it with a capital P.
b) Pikachu is, like I said, a name, not a common noun.

(ponesigitive? I learnt something new today XD)

So we have:

Positive: 1
Negative: 1
Ponesigitive: 1

Which makes it a tie.

In return to Dark Pikachu
a) Nintendo endoresed it with a capital P because it classifies Pikachu as a name of the character. However, we Pokemon fans had learnt from Satoshi Tajiri that Pokemon are species.
b)Like I said in b. Satoshi Tajiri had stated that Pokemon are species, not names.

 

[Monzae]

haha...ponesigitive...I made that up because I was positive-negative...no new words here xD only me being bored...

In return to DP,

Nintendo DID endorse Pikachu with a capital P, you are right, but we are also a little slack at times when we type 'pikachu' and 'pokemon'...I mean, Pokemon was endorsed as Pok?mon, but people still call it Pokemon. I think that could be a same case situation, and I think it could also be excused...maybe?

 

[PichuSecretBase]

Pikachu is a proper noun thus it should have a capital P... Some debate you got here *sarcastic*

 

[YelloMit]

Pikachu is a proper noun thus it should have a capital P... Some debate you got here *sarcastic*

Exactly. Capital P for me. ;o

 

[deathbyalice]

Only if that is what they call the Pokemon. Like Ash's pikachu. He calls it Pikachu. As a name, it should be capitalized, but otherwise, I guess it doesn't need to be. I tend to capitalize the first letter of all the Pokemon though.

 

[Flygon trainer]

Well, I'd accept Pikachu as a species name, just as you would refer to a Komodo Dragon. it's a species name, therefore it should be capitalised properly.

 

[Magic Mike]

Pikachu is meant to be capatialized and not capatilaized. If you say " Hey Mom" Mom is capitalized because it can be replaced with a name. If you said " My mom said we can go to the store" Then it is lowercase because you can say " my susie said..." Same with Pikachu. Saying" DO you think Pikachu is cool?" Is like saying "Do you think sam is cool?". But if you're saying "I caught a pikachu!!" then it is lowercased. Simple Gammar...=/

 

[Flygon trainer]

But again, Pikachu is a species name. say you were a herpatologist. if you caught a snake, you'd say "I caught a Ball Python", or "I caught a python" becuase python is classification, and Ball Python is species. just like Pikachu is a rodent, but Pikachu is a species of rodent.

 

[Monzae]

I think everyone else has nailed it pretty well...I agree with everyone :)

 

[Magic Mike]

But again, Pikachu is a species name. say you were a herpatologist. if you caught a snake, you'd say "I caught a Ball Python", or "I caught a python" becuase python is classification, and Ball Python is species. just like Pikachu is a rodent, but Pikachu is a species of rodent.

You have a point. Pikachu is a species of rodent. Bah I'm confused right now...

 

[Kylie-chan]

Um, in reply to you, they are the species of Pokemon.

In return to PichuSecretBase's sarcasm, well, hello, I knew Frostweaver wouldn't come and debate it, but I wanted to know what others thought and why. :P And a debate was what we were having.

And, no, if you were to say My mum said we could go down to the shop, it would be incorrect, because you are referring to your particular mother, who is called Mum as a nickname.

And if you owned a "susie" that would be correct, because if a "susie" was a thing, it would be a common noun.

And Magic Mike, you would say "I caught a Pikachu!" because THAT's the correct grammar. Pikachu isn't a thing, it's a, well, yeah, like I said, a species or the name of thing.

If you nicknamed your Pikachu to have a lower-case p, yes, that would be correct. Now we are talking about the word. But, "I caught a pikachu!" would be wrong, even if you nicknamed that particular Pikachu "pikachu" as the being is known as a Pikachu. If you wanted to call it by your nickname for that particular being - not the particular species, e.g. dog, you would say "I caught pikachu!"

 

[Mr Cat Dog]

Technically, unless Satoshi Tajiri proclaims Pikachu a proper noun, it can be spelt any way, shape or form. I prefer to spell it with a capital P, as I think spelling it otherwise is just plain laziness. But, that's just me, and my opinion doesn't count for much... :(

 

[Jay12345]

Learn your nouns man.

Is Pikachu a specific person, place, thing, or idea? Yes it is, Ash is not sending out the creature. Ash is sending out the creature Pikachu.

Also if you have any question about Pokemon, you have to capitalize that also. Not only is it the name of the show/games, but they are specific creatures.

 

[Dratini927]

I would say that we should capitalize the word Pikachu. It just doesn't seem right to not capitalize it; makes it feel like a messed up sentence.

So for me, I would capitalize it, because it just seems like it should be that way.

 

[Lonepichu]

I think Pikachu should be capitolized since that is what it's name is, unless otherwise directed by the trainer.

 

[Dragonfree]

Pok?mon names should be captalized.

This Halloween weekend, get something better than candy by heading down to the Pok?mon Center NY and bagging your very own Deoxys!

Notice the captalization of the 'D' in Deoxys. They're the official people, aren't they? Satoshi Tajiri isn't the one who should be in charge of the English names, since as far as I know, Japanese has no capital letters at all. The cover of my Colosseum game reads "You'll snag lots of Pok?mon that you couldn't catch in Hoenn - like Bayleef!", not "... like bayleef".

The official English Pok?mon sources capitalize them, and that means we should do so too. End of story.

And it's Pok?mon, not Pok?mon... people often type Pokemon because they don't have ? on their keyboards, but it is technically incorrect. However, everybody has a capital P on their keyboards, so they have no excuse not to capitalize "Pikachu" or any other Pok?mon name.