麻豆社

Adopting a wild west theme, Stephen ventures into the untamed territory of names, place names, brands and trademarks.

For example, 'wild west' - should those two words have capitals? Stephen hears from a lexicographer in a cowboy hat, some west country cows (West Country cows?) an intellectual property lawyer and an onomastician - the name given to name experts.

What he finds out is that 'capital-ism' changes its rules, and may be threatened by technology, as well as discovering that trade mark owners will be quite assertive about making sure you spell their brands with capital letters. What the programme really asks, to misquote Juliet, is what is a name? And do names operate differently to other words?

One of the answers is counterintuitive. Linguistically, names don't always behave like other words.
Capitalising on this, Stephen will conduct tests on listeners' ability to capitalise correctly. The trouble is the solutions aren't always clear.

There will be no mention of hoovering in this programme. Or should that be Hoovering?

Producer: Nick Baker
A Testbed production for 麻豆社 Radio 4.