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Don't remember. This was 30 or 35 years ago. There was a long tradition in English and maybe also in other European languages of choosing punctuation depending
by frank2 6y ago
Don't remember. This was 30 or 35 years ago.
There was a long tradition in English and maybe also in other European languages of choosing punctuation depending on how long a pause a speaker would take at the point, with a comma denoting a shorter pause than a semicolon, which in turn denoted a shorter pause than a colon, which in turn denoted a shorter pause than a period -- instead of using punctuation to convey some semantic distinction as most writers do today. The comma splice might be a vestige of that tradition.
- gnramires 6y agoBut the pauses are semantic in a way. Those concepts cannot be well separated. Not a linguist, but I can tell pauses are used by speakers and listeners for a variety of reasons, linked with both semantics and delivery -- to separate parts, to give and demarcate "processing time" for speakers and listeners, to create and satisfy expectation, etc. The cadence of speech is semantic (though its semantics are not of a simple propositional logic type).