more grammar questions

[tanithryudo]

There was a meeting between the President and the Joint Chiefs. - Should "President" as in "of the U.S." be capitalized?

"Now calm down there, son," said the general. - Should "son" be capitalized if it's one of those figures of speech and not actually the speaker's son? What about if the addressee is the speaker's son?

All of the victims were human, not Jaffa or Asgard. - Should "human" be capitalized? It's weird because you would expect other alien species/race references to get capitalized...

Comments

[cashew.insanejournal.com]

President - Capitalized

Son - Not capitalized, in either scenario

Human - Not capitalized. You wouldn't say "all the victims were Lions". No, it would be "all the victims were lions". Species names are only capitalized (and italicized) if using the scientific name, e.g. Homo sapiens. Alien or no, species still work the same way. On the other hand, if "Jaffa" or "Asgard" are species names, then I question their capitalization, as one doesn't see things like "elf" or "orc" capitalized (usually).

(Then again, humans are pretty ego centric, hence "earth" not capitalized, but ever other planet, e.g. Mercury, are. By that convention, "humans" will still remain uncapitalized.)