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If you refer to a building or place ("Westminster Abbey", "Dodger Stadium", "Cedars Hospital", "Library of Alexandria") whose name is a proper noun which combines a unique identifier ("Westminster") with a category noun ("abbey") by its full name, you would capitalize all portions of the noun. If you omit the generic / categorical portion of the name, you continue to capitalize the remaining portion of the name ("I'm going to Cedars", "They held the coronation at Westminster").

But when omitting the unique identifier, and using the categorical noun as a metonym, it's less clear what should be done. If you're in a place with exactly one cathedral, should you say "I'm going to the cathedral" or "I'm going to the Cathedral" when "Cathedral" is part of the building's name?

Trying out various examples I can't seem to find a consistent pattern for what feels right in my head, and it's not clear.

aaron
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    Is this really a metonym? It sounds like it's just a common noun that happens to be included in the place's proper name. – alphabet Mar 26 '23 at 19:58
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    Westminster is used as shorthand for the UK Parliament, so it's unlikely to be used for the Abbey. – Kate Bunting Mar 27 '23 at 10:32
  • Synecdoche might have been a better term to use to use than metonym, technically, but I hope my ambiguity here didn't undermine the broader question. – aaron Mar 29 '23 at 11:26

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It depends on whether you consider "cathedral" to be part of a name or not, and there is no universal, ironclad rule for determining that. I believe that in most contexts, people would usually consider it a common noun and thus in no need of capitalization. However, names that are shortened to their "common" parts are often capitalized, such as:

The New York Times -> The Times
Long Island -> the Island
the English Channel -> the Channel
the U.S. Capitol -> the Capitol
the Fourth of July -> the Fourth

In general, if you believe that a term is a shortened form of a name, then keep it capitalized. If you think that it refers to a thing generically, then keep it lowercase. In many situations, this will be a matter of opinion and either option will be acceptable. (For example, the body of water between England and France is the Channel but also a channel.)

MarcInManhattan
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    I agree with this answer (with mfoy's answer here – 'However, in literature, it's common enough to capitalize things if they are "special" enough' – as also relevant). I think a supporting reference might be hard to find, but one would really be welcome. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 27 '23 at 11:56
  • If your town has a cathedral, you might say: I'm going to the cathedral without a capital. – Lambie Mar 28 '23 at 16:09
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This is a matter of style, and there are many styles. In general, though, when we separate a common noun from its place name, it becomes common and we use lowercase. (I’m going to Dodger Stadium. → I’m going to the stadium.)

But some places have achieved “epithet” (nickname) status, and different rules might apply.

According to The Chicago Manual of Style:

8.48: Popular place-names or epithets
Popular names of places, or epithets, are usually capitalized. Quotation marks are not needed. Some of the following examples may be used of more than one place. None should be used in contexts where they will not be readily understood . . .

Here a few pertinent examples offered:

the Cape
the Delta
the Gulf
the Loop (Chicago)
Midtown (Manhattan)
the Village (Greenwich Village)

Again, this a matter of style. While the AP Stylebook says (of Buckingham Palace): On second reference, use the palace, the queen — er, Queen — (may she rest in peace) might have other ideas.

Tinfoil Hat
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If you refer to a building or place ("Westminster Abbey", "Dodger Stadium", "Cedars Hospital", "Library of Alexandria") whose name is a proper noun

Let me stop you right there. What we capitalize are not proper nouns but proper names. "Cedars Hospital" is a proper name, but it is not a proper noun—in fact, it's two separate words, so it isn't a noun at all.

Within the proper name "Cedars Hospital" you have two nouns. The first of those ("Cedars") is indeed a proper noun. But the second one ("hospital") is a common noun, as shown by the fact that you can use it uncapitalized in a variety of contexts with the same meaning ("there was a hospital nearby").

A proper noun is always either a proper name or part of a proper name. Thus, when you use "Cedars" on its own, it remains a proper name, and is capitalized.

However, while common nouns can be part of a proper name (like the "hospital" in "Cedars Hospital"), they usually aren't. So in general there's no reason to capitalize "hospital" on its own, even if you happen to be referring to one particular hospital with "Hospital" in its name; this is because "Hospital" on its own is not, in the way one would generally use it, a name for the hospital.

So, in the "Cedars Hospital" example, the correct answer is "the hospital," not "the Hospital."

It should be noted that, while all proper nouns only occur as or within proper names, some proper names do not contain any proper nouns: "The Free Dictionary," "The Human Genome Project," "The Guardian," et cetera.

(My source for this is Huddleston & Pullum (2002).)

alphabet
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  • This Wikipedia article supports your 'What we capitalize are not proper nouns but proper names', but is not as assertive: 'Current linguistics makes a distinction between proper nouns and proper names but this distinction is not universally observed and sometimes it is observed but not rigorously.' I'm not sure that open compound nouns such as cell phone aren't classed by many as [noun] ... and certainly the three spelling variations 'particle board → → particleboard' are. I agree that it would be better were there agreement on terminology.... – Edwin Ashworth Mar 27 '23 at 11:23
  • The ill-definition of 'word' (Crystal coined the term 'lexeme' to include the open/closed compound examples, but also 'ship of the desert' when it is used for 'camel') is problematic. / I'd say that both 'I'm going to the bank' and 'I'm going to the Bank' are both available for the Bank of England. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 27 '23 at 11:26
  • @EdwinAshworth I'm not sure about "cell phone," but I find reading "Cedars Hospital" as a single noun rather hard to accept, since the noun "hospital" occurs inside of it with its usual meaning. – alphabet Mar 27 '23 at 11:28
  • Yes, it's a grey area and gets more awkward the more you investigate. But until CGEL is set in tablets of stone, their analyses are not incontrovertible ('According to CGEL, it makes more sense to argue: what capitalize are not proper nouns but proper names'). – Edwin Ashworth Mar 27 '23 at 11:33
  • @EdwinAshworth The reason why "the Bank" is valid is because you're using "Bank" as a proper name for the bank itself (a "weak" one preceded by a definite article). In OP's example, it's much more natural to read "cathedral," not as a name, but as a common noun with its usual meaning. – alphabet Mar 27 '23 at 11:33
  • 'The English Channel' would surely reduce to 'the Channel', but 'the president/President' [with the implied 'of the United States'] are both available IMO. And while I agree that 'cathedral' is the default choice, I'd not be too surprised at 'Cathedral' when an obvious one was specified. 'The channel' for la Manche, I'd mark incorrect. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 27 '23 at 11:48
  • @EdwinAshworth I think that with "the Channel" you leave it capitalized in part because the common noun "channel" is so rare in the relevant sense. Nobody would say "the English Channel is my favo[u]rite channel." – alphabet Mar 27 '23 at 11:54
  • Perhaps the Discovery Channel. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 27 '23 at 12:06
  • Legal documents often use caps where others would not and give them in their definitions: The following terms are used in this document. the Bank means The Bank of Tokyo). – Lambie Mar 28 '23 at 16:12