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The melancholy decline of the semicolon
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- RavinduL 5y agofor (let i = 0— i < 3— ++i) { console.log("no semicolons!")— }
- Pxtl 5y agoIt can't be accidental that the article has multiple paragraphs where they use an em dash where a semicolon would've also been appropriate.
- minimilian 5y agoIt uses an em rule where an en rule would have been correct: em rules are not surrounded by spaces.
- GavinMcG 5y agoI'm not giving in to the UK's bastardization of the en dash! The em dash was correct, it's just the spaces are wrong.
- mbfg 5y agoFortunately, programmers have taken up the cause and boosted the semicolon to it's rightful place.
- boulos 5y agoI'm surprised they didn't mention the controversial Vonnegut advice to never use semicolons (e.g., [1]). [1] https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/vonneguts-famous-semicolon-advice-was-taken-out-of-context https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/vonnegut...
- leksak 5y ago"Or Kurt Vonnegut, who famously advised against their use" is in the article
- jokethrowaway 5y agoIf you read the article linked in the comment, they say Vonnegut was, probably, kidding about the semicolons.
- drittich 5y agoWho probably also advised to never listen to advice from successful authors.
- csee 5y agoIt isn't clear whether his advice here is just humor. This article goes on to explain that he uses semicolons in his own work, even in places where he didn't need to.
- vidarh 5y agoIt might be part humourous, part the type of advice that is good for those that don't know when to break it. It's easy to over-use semicolons, and you often see people who have just discovered them use them all over the place for no good reason.
- zozbot234 5y ago> The melancholy decline of the semicolon I blame JavaScript developers. /s
- Sebb767 5y agoClearly Lisp is the actual source of all evil ;)
- phoe-krk 5y agoA semicolon in Lisp starts a comment. Despite how bad some comments can be, I kinda doubt comments are the source of all evil in general.
- pfdietz 5y agoI had been hoping this was about lisp comments. :)
- erik_seaberg 5y agoTo be fair, it can be a bit terrifying to read a Lisp form that even the author thought required a comment.
- phoe-krk 5y agoWhy? Code requires comments regardless of language in order to explain the why as opposed to the what. See e.g. https://github.com/sbcl/sbcl/search?q=kludge https://github.com/sbcl/sbcl/search?q=kludge for examples.
- erik_seaberg 5y agoYeah, I’m just riffing off Lisp’s reputation for intellectual overconfidence.
- lvncelot 5y agoS-Expressions, the sin is right there in the name.
- peter_retief 5y agoBut wait; why not give it, another chance.
- kreeben 5y agoNo, because the semicolon is dead; long live the semicolon.
- tentacleuno 5y agoThe semicolon is dead; long live the semicolon.
- sillysaurusx 5y agoThe semicolon is dead; long live the semicolon. I'm particularly bored tonight.
- dsr_ 5y agoI dislike your comma more than your semi-colon, and persist in thinking that a question mark is a better choice than a period.
- peter_retief 5y agoWell spotted?
- hairofadog 5y agoI know you’re kidding but golly does comma misuse stop me in my tracks every time. I can slide past almost any other spelling or style error without a second thought, or even crazy autocorrect errors in which, say, the word “mother” has been replaced with “toaster”, but this sort of comma misuse is like nails on a chalkboard to me. And it’s rampant.
- secondcoming 5y agoA misplaced comma can change the meaning of text entirely. [0] https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20180723-the-commas-that-cost-companies-millions https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20180723-the-commas-tha...
- einpoklum 5y ago"The semicolon is a profound public mystery; the only punctuation mark that regularly unites readers and writers in deep-seated repugnance." That sentence should have used a colon, not a semi-colon, IIANM. The digital world churns; Twitter is not an arena known for reflection. Semicolons, then, are snottily elitist and shadily indirect. The elitist snottiness is in assuming people live their lives on Twitter and the like. They don't. the semicolon has been usurped by ... the Dash Well, _maybe_ some authors use more dashes than they used to (I actually doubt that, but never mind) - but a dash is not a substitute for semicolon. Their semantics are too different for that to be possible, IMHO. Take the first sentence in this paragraph: You can't replace the dash there with a semicolon, as that would mean splitting the "maybe" and "but" clauses into separate, not-directly-related clauses; you just can't do that. indicating a pause Not just a pause; a semicolon is also a semantic distancing. Two phrases separated by a comma are really an inseparable part of the same idea idea; if you separate them by a semicolon, they can each stand in their own right.
- amelius 5y ago> Two phrases separated by a comma are really an inseparable part of the same idea idea; if you separate them by a semicolon, they can each stand in their own right. A semicolon is a period and a comma combined. This makes me think that if the first part logically should end with a question mark or exclamation mark, we should have corresponding symbols for that.
- denton-scratch 5y ago> That sentence should have used a colon, not a semi-colon, IIANM. I think you are mistaken. The two clauses are full sentences. They could have been separated by a full-stop/period, but the semi-colon makes them part of the same "thought".
- archduck 5y agoSorry, but “the only punctuation mark that regularly unites readers and writers in deep-seated repugnance” is not a full sentence. It should indeed be a colon.
- im3w1l 5y agoSentence length has gone down a lot, it feels like. So really, the semicolon has not been replaced by the dash, but by the period.
- Sebb767 5y agoWhen you need to write text for a wide audience, shorter sentences are usually preferable. Most business schools even teach briefness as an explicit target, as far as I know. That's quite different compared to the origins of writing, where the target were (usually) very literate people.
- mdp2021 5y agoBriefness does not (and cannot) go against proper structuring - structure exists regardless of brevity. Comma, semicolon, period, new paragraph: the expressed thought has a structure and its sets of relative closeness are indicated through them.
- darkerside 5y agoWas going to comment this. Are there any great examples in all of literature where a period would not have been a good replacement fora semicolon? As a side note, I am only a little offended by the idea that fiction writers should use semicolons to make their writing more literate or fancy. But I think simple writing is always better, even when you are trying to convey beauty. I believe great flowery literature is great in spite of the floweriness, not because of it.
- mannykannot 5y agoAsking for a "great example" of punctuation use - any punctuation - is to miss the point, which is to smooth the reader's understanding of the text in the way that inflection and cadence are used in speech. As another commenter pointed out, well-used punctuation should be invisible. Only in its absence can it be properly appreciated. Understanding language is not a strictly linear, one-word-after-another process, and these non-lexical clues all help us converge quickly on the intended meaning. There have been several suggestions as to what might be just as good as a semicolon, but the period is a new one to me, and I strongly suspect that there are many cases where this substitution would interrupt a reader's flow. Given the importance, semantically, of the sentence, there are probably cases where this would corrupt the meaning.
- jokethrowaway 5y agoI enjoy using semicolons when writing, a dash is not always appropriate. Bonus points if it makes me look like a pompous loner going against society. Reject modernity, embrace semicolons.
- jebronie 5y agoReject modernity; embrace semicolons.
- vmception 5y ago> “All they do is show you’ve been to college.” The symbol is facing the same melancholy fate as the dodo, the dinosaur, and the Soviet Union. Consensus is a beautiful thing.
- HPsquared 5y agoSometimes the semicolon is the best tool for the job.
- paulcole 5y agoIf you’re a good enough writer to know how to property use a semicolon, you’re a good enough writer to not need to use one.
- drittich 5y agoAnd, possibly, a good enough writer to know that just because you don't need to do something doesn't mean you shouldn't do it.
- mdp2021 5y ago> to not need to use one Why should one avoid using it.
- kreeben 5y agoBecause people have a problem with punctuation?
- mdp2021 5y ago> people have a problem with punctuation What do you mean? I hope it's not something like "[some] people are confused by numbers, so avoid numbers". Of course (special contexts aside), those people should fix their problem with numbers, and whenever numbers are useful or duly for the purpose of communication, they should be there. The same for punctuation or any other function.
- paulcole 5y agoOne should decide if one is using it because it’s the best way to communicate with one’s audience or if one is proud that one knows how to use a semicolon properly.
- mdp2021 5y agoIf your audience benefits from expressions that avoid semicolon, the point is in the expression, not in its nuts and bolts: you use an apt structure, which should anyway in general follow sensible rules. And you should not pollute the minds of your audience, so surely you want to avoid "reinforcing the use of something wrong by adopting it": you may, with ability, simplify a structure, but still crafting something eventually well and properly done. This rules out misplacing said "nuts and bolts". Pride has nothing to do with it - to use logarithms for magnitudes is not "showing off".
- Pxtl 5y agoTwitter has rescued the semicolon for me as a way to save a character since an em-dash requires an extra space.
- davidmurdoch 5y agoYou shouldn't do that with an em-dash.
- Wowfunhappy 5y agoWhile some publications do add space on either side of an em-dash—including, apparently, the submitted website—I was always taught not to. It certainly isn't required.
- gryfft 5y agoThis article does not demonstrate understanding of the semicolon; it is used incorrectly in the first sentence, for crying out loud.
- saurik 5y agoOMG, LOL... it's literally the scenario from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M94ii6MVilw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M94ii6MVilw :(.
- vlmutolo 5y agoI was looking for this comment. Thought I was going insane for a second.
- Veen 5y agoIt uses the semi-colon to join independent clauses instead of a conjunction, which is fine. It might otherwise have read, “The semicolon is a profound public mystery, and the only punctuation mark that…”. Nevertheless, it isn’t a great showcase for the semi-colon’s usefulness. The writer could have invented a more elegant example to begin the article; the one they chose is a prime example of a semi-colon that adds little to the sentence.
- gryfft 5y agoThe second phrase is not an independent clause, which is the issue. > the only punctuation mark that regularly unites readers and writers in deep-seated repugnance There is not a subject and a verb; this is a fragment and does not stand alone. Prepending "it is" to the second clause would make this a proper sentence by making the second clause an independent clause instead of merely a noun modified by an adjectival prepositional phrase. Edit: I nerdsniped myself and it might not be strictly accurate to call it a prepositional phrase; 'that' is technically a conjunction in this case used to link its own subordinate clause, but that subordinate clause still does not complete the clause fragment whose subject is "[punctuation] mark." It's still just a modified noun.
- joegahona 5y agoA comma is not warranted in your alternate sentence.
- bsder 5y agoMeh. Grammar, in general, is on a steep suckiness trend. For example, when was the last time you saw someone on the web actually use the correct past tense of "lead (verb, transitive)"?
- pwdisswordfish0 5y agoWhat is the correct past tense of lead? I thought it was “led”, but I can’t remember having ever read any other form? What often irks me, as a non-native speaker, is the wrong subjunctive (if that’s what it’s called). People say and write all the time “I wish you were there”, when they mean “I wish you had been there”. At least I’m pretty sure that’s how it’s supposed to be…
- dsr_ 5y agoPresent: "He leads me to believe in grammatical rigor." Past: "She led me to that conclusion long ago." Past, growing popular but historically incorrect: "She lead me to that conclusion long ago." Noun: "I licked the sweet lead off the wall." Also noun: "After six rounds of chess-boxing-sprinting, it was not clear to either of the participants who had the lead." Also also popular but historically incorrect noun: "We have eighty thousand lead-free ornaments on this wall, each lit by an individually-addressable led."
- NoSorryCannot 5y agoThis is spelling, not grammar. It's the same word, not a noun, spelled differently.
- denton-scratch 5y agoAnd each led connected to power by its own lead. Incidentally, are those ornaments electrically-powered? Don't they need leads to provide power?
- dsr_ 5y ago"I wish you were here" -- in this location, now or in the past. "I wish you were there" -- at another location, now or in the past. "I wish you had been there" -- at another location, in the past. "had been" means that the action is concluded. "were" is for both continuing and concluded actions, and more words are necessary to glark it from context.
- mdp2021 5y agoI am seeing a use of the instruments that seems quite confused. The semicolon is part of the division of the expression of thought in supersets and subsets of structural affinity: comma, semicolon, period, new paragraph. (Which also means that the semicolon has a necessary role in general: whenever the structure is best defined also using that level of affinity.) The dash, the colon and the brackets are instead related to the modality of relation: the colon to express dependency, the dash to provide detail, the brackets to insert a note parallel to the main flow. (Note: there is also a sub-function of the semicolon to separate list items. I did not use it in the paragraph just above as I intended to exploit the "nuclear" aspect of comma-separated list items, but that is a rhetorical option and the semicolon would have been necessary for more complex items.)
- minimilian 5y agoDid you mean `full-stop' in your 2nd paragraph, or are you ascribing a double role to the colon and ignoring the full-stop? According to Fowler (The King's English), there was a time when the difference between , ; : . was merely quantitative (which explains the name `semicolon').
- mdp2021 5y agoThank you! Now corrected. Informally: incredibly, one reads and re-reads, edits multiple times in a span of hours, and still leaves errors and imprecisions. Of course it was the period or "full-stop" - in reading, also as I had defined the colon differently in the next paragraph... By the way, you made me note that 'full-stop' is British English and 'period' is American English. As some of us prefer to write in International English - "OED", or "British spelling with -ize graecisms" in international contexts, I have never considered if there is some solid orientation also about terminology - 'full-stop' vs. 'period', 'lift' vs. 'elevator'...
- minimilian 5y agoOne advantage of `full-stop' -- apart from its being British -- is that it fits referring to the Greek semicolon as a ``half-stop''.
- hungryforcodes 5y agoAnd no fucks; were given.
- wruza 5y agoI’ve read some shelves in my life, and from a reader’s perspective a good read has never made me think about what punctuation the author used. This is an inside nonsense which only worries idling writers and critics.
- kqr 5y agoI considered Frankenstein to be a good read. Compared to the stuff I read before, Shelley's frequent use of the semicolon did startle me. And taught me its proper usage.
- revolvingocelot 5y ago>a good read has never made me think about what punctuation the author used I can with certainty conclude that you have never ever read any Cormac McCarthy or Charles Dickens, and you should, if only to illustrate each extreme of the milieu which you've thus far ignored.
- derbOac 5y agoThe only certainty about writing rules is that good writers break them.
- 1121redblackgo 5y agoMy goal was to read one book this year after reading none the previous couple years. My friend and I chose Blood Meridian >< and it has been a challenging foray back into the hobby/reading life that I am not sure I would choose again. Good book though for sure.
- Decabytes 5y agoI find it amusing that programmers use semicolons more often then writers.
- joegahona 5y agoThey also use square brackets and curly braces more often than writers. That's not as amusing, for some reason. It does feel like the semicolon doesn't deserve a position on home row anymore. I would demote it for a different letter or even the question mark. Actually I might try this on my Ergodox.
- hjtkfkfmr 5y agoNature finds a way to balance things...
- amelius 5y agoProgramming is the new literacy.
- contingencies 5y agoIn that case, it seems the literati are opting to curtail their own literacy; recent languages trend toward reducing them: Python, Ruby, Rust.
- dash2 5y agoAh, the colon. To misquote Denis Leary, never use a punctuation symbol named after part of your ass. And then the semicolon. Half-assed by name, half-assed by nature.
- astura 5y agoI'll save you a click, this is just faux-intellectual drivel.
- __s 5y agoSemicolons aren't just for high literature: https://serprex.github.io/w/ https://serprex.github.io/w/; > Semicolons are hot Dash seems a poor substitute. A dash is closer to a period. Semicolons work well for when just using multiple commas would become ambiguous. Shorter sentences also solve that, but sometimes you want a run on sentence, sometimes you want to splice more context in at this very point. & sometimes you just want to drop a conjunction
- kreeben 5y ago>> at this very point. & sometimes Unless you're a famous writer, isn't that against the law? I thought you're supposed to start a sentence with a capital letter, or can anything follow a hard stop? E.g. is this kosher (?): Microsoft copied Java. .net, they called it. Final question; what if your name is kreeben with a lowercase 'k', is this kosher: Grammar is hard. kreeben does not understand it. ?
- __s 5y agoThat's kosher Writing has no laws, only rules meant to be broken English is also a descriptivist language, rather than prescriptivist. ie English has no spec, unlike French (tho you then have French as it is spoken & French as it is specified). As much as Oxford might want to reign it in, they are only cataloging what the collective spews Examples of miniscule starts: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/of_Montreal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/of_Montreal where the band's name is always "of Montreal"
- msla 5y ago> (tho you then have French as it is spoken & French as it is specified) Which means French has no spec, either, merely people trying to create a specification and failing.
- tsimionescu 5y ago>(tho you then have French as it is spoken & French as it is specified) You missed an excellent chance to say 'French as she is spoke' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_as_She_Is_Spoke https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_as_She_Is_Spoke
- pram 5y agoCounterpoint: tools like Grammarly frequently recommended semicolons, so I’ve actually been using them more than ever before recently.
- hdjjhhvvhga 5y agoIt was to be expected; people are often unsure how to use it.
- dmitryminkovsky 5y ago> The semicolon is an element of language that communicates stops, pauses, reflections, and cigarette breaks within a sentence. It connects loose ends with disparate ideas; In this regard I think the decline of the semicolon is related to the fact that we write knowing that our message will be competing for attention in a busy inbox or feed. Our audience is the harried, harassed reader. There’s not much room for reflection or whimsy in such settings.
- zuj 5y agoCompletely off topic but, after doing python for ages, recently started writing Rust and semicolon does seems useless. We are doing the indentation and new lines anyway, why not just make them as default language construct as python does. (autodidact developer here, feel free to ELI5 and enlighten me)
- Tyr42 5y agoWell, have you ever run into the x = some_long_expression + another_long_expression problem? In Python you need to be careful to wrap that in () or use a \ before the newline to avoid it parsing as two lines, e.g. x = some_long_expression; + another_long_expression; In particular, if you have a builder expressions let x = someBuilder() .setVal(x) .build() You'd need to wrap the entire thing in () to avoid it getting mad, right? So if you're going to terminate expressions with ), and start them with (, why not just terminate them with ; instead? Javascript is a "Semicolons Optional" language, but it's actually the worst of both worlds, as you have to be very careful not to wrap lines like function() { some stuff; return really_long_named_thing; } As it'll just insert a ; on the return, returning undefined for you.
- zuj 5y agoLove the examples, thanks for ELI5.
- PhineasRex 5y agoTo be fair, that's really more of a python-specific deficiency than a general problem with significant whitespace. Haskell for example interprets further-indented lines as a continuation of the current expression, only ending the expression when it sees a new line of the same or lesser indentation.
- ReleaseCandidat 5y agoAs I wrote, you have to do similar things when using Haskell (or F# or OCaml) in the REPL. Python just doesn't have a special 'non-REPL' syntax.
- every 5y agoSemicolons drown adventurers every day in NetHack and show no signs of decline: https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/ https://nethackwiki.com/wiki/;
- bitwize 5y agoI was hoping The Lonely Island would raise the semicolon's profile: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M94ii6MVilw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M94ii6MVilw
- codr7 5y agoI tend to use it as another level of separation where needed, where comma is used for something else internally.
- EMM_386 5y agoI find it interesting that I am using semicolons more these days because clients like my work Outlook recommend it in places I wouldn't use it but are correct; as a result, I use it more often.
- mac-chaffee 5y agoI use them a lot to control the tone of what I write. Since periods can indicate a serious or angry tone[1], I often need some other way to indicate a separation between two complete sentences. For example: "It looks like you forgot to do X; that's needed to do Y." Using a period could be perceived as anger, but using a comma would make that sentence a comma splice. [1] https://youtu.be/fS4X1JfX6_Q?t=3m3s https://youtu.be/fS4X1JfX6_Q?t=3m3s
- behnamoh 5y agoI wish there were more symbols for other use cases, too. I honestly think the standardization of things in the 20th century actually prevented lots of innovations in language and alphabet. Nowadays, you can't even imagine adding or removing a letter to/from the alphabet. Heck, we can't even change the layout of the current alphabet on keyboards because QWERTY is just too much standardized. In fact, forget about alphabet; we can't even change the symbols on keyboards (who says I must only use `~!@#$%^&* ... on my keyboard?) Sure you can use unicode characters, but why haven't the special characters on keyboards changed at all since the 80s? The answer: standardization. The evolution of languages, words, alphabets, and special characters helped shape the way we think about things, and since the 20th century, that hasn't changed that much.
- dharmaturtle 5y agoI totally agree with you. I like using symbols to shape the way I think, and I find using AutoHotKey to to expand typed strings works well for my workflow. Stuff like "qbeta", "qright", "qdegree" and "q@" become β, →, °, and my email. Very useful when I was in university. These days, I use it to type stuff like (ﾟヮﾟ ) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ and a black box symbol that HN won't let me type, but is eye catching for when you're scanning logs. Symbols like checkmark, ×, the thinking emoji, and the hourglass are useful when taking notes. Lots can be found in the Windows 10 emoji finder (Win + Period), but AHK is more customizable. Also WinPeriod is juuuuust that much more friction and I find AHK fits into my flow better. This flow shapes the way I think.
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- ineedasername 5y agoI had to read a lot of Heidegger, who was interesting on a macro level but interminably boring on the micro level needed to see the macro. His readability was helped by the use of very visible double dashes-- sort of an extended version of the double-comma appositive structure in a sentence-- so the structure of his writing was easier to follow. I liked that much more visual que enough that I adopted it myself for a while. Over time, I recognized that when I found myself reaching for the technique it meant that I probably needed to restructure things into more discrete chunks that build sequentially. When possible, conveying complex information benefits from as simple a structure as the information can manage.
- layer8 5y ago> Over time, I recognized that when I found myself reaching for the technique I had a similar experience with parentheses.
- gnubison 5y agoThey’re called “em dashes”, and they look like this: — You can find a Real, Genuine Em Dash™ at https://emda.sh https://emda.sh, or insert one using ‘C-k - M’ in Vim or ‘Compose - - -’ on Linux — not sure about other platforms.
- ineedasername 5y agoThanks— I didn't realize there was an actual character for them. Though IIRC MSWord would sometimes auto format them into that single extended dash appearance.
- gnubison 5y agoYes, iPhones automatically merge two dashes together as well.
- notinty 5y agoAlt hyphen on macOS, hold on most all mobile platforms.
- blockwriter 5y agoThere are the rules, and then there is the intuitive rationale that a writer finds for using a certain grammatical form. The improved quality of writer’s writing is often premised upon these rationales. If the rationale is intuitive to the writer, it is likely that the reader’s cognitive overhead will be reduced as well. This contributes to a reader’s truly felt pleasure when they realize what they’re reading is good.
- thenoblesunfish 5y agoI love the semicolon, as a tool to judiciously include in the toolkit, for when you want to join two sentences more emphatically. It even helps you be concise and emphatic; this sentence demonstrates how.
- helmholtz 5y agoI wish using the word "Melancholic" was more of a thing, rather than the pedestrian and, in my firm belief, incorrect, "Melancholy" I was feeling Melancholic, not melancholy. I know Oxford disagrees and fuck them too. Melancholy already is a perfectly nice noun.
- b3morales 5y ago"Feel X" is perfectly valid for X either noun or adjective: I feel sadness/I feel sad. I feel joy/I feel joyful.
- jmnicolas 5y agoFun fact: the semicolon won't decline soon in France (and a few other countries I think): it's what we use instead of commas for CSV files! However I never use it when writing anything, I'm not even sure what's its usage.
- _def 5y agoI'm not super sure but you probably could've used one instead of the comma in your last sentence. I think people just use other symbols instead: comma, dash and period.
- delecti 5y agoI think Germany does that as well. It was very confusing to inherit code that "accepted CSVs", but didn't accept files where the values were comma-separated.
- jmnicolas 5y agoBecause we use the comma instead of the dot for decimal numbers. Since the advent of computers it's a bit less true, dots are used too but this is the historical reason.
- logicalmonster 5y agoI think kids have had "avoid run-on sentences" drummed into them so hard that they've become very hesitant to use alternative punctuation that would lengthen sentences.
- bobsuroncle 5y ago"Vonnegut’s First rule: Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college. (From A Man Without a Country)" - https://lithub.com/kurt-vonneguts-greatest-writing-advice/ https://lithub.com/kurt-vonneguts-greatest-writing-advice/
- smackeyacky 5y agoI might have this wrong but there was a definite use case for the semi-colon: it follows a colon in a list; can be used as a more flowing version of a bullet point list; can do so without interrupting the readers chain of thought. edit: grammarly says I'm wrong and that should be a colon followed by a comma separated list. I might just be old or confused.
- not-my-account 5y ago"And so any student whose deployment of a semi-colon is not absolutely Mozart-esque knows that they’re going to get a C in my class" - David Foster Wallace
- tpoacher 5y agoMy favourite use of the semicolon is in its function as a "supercomma". It just makes sense. E.g. "We were joined by three families: John, his wife, Mary, and their son, George; the Middletons; and our neighbours, Jim and Sally from next door." Alas, whenever I use it, invariably someone who's never seen it used this way will simply have a tantrum until I completely rewrite the whole thing in the most tedious way possible; it's almost not worth using it, for this reason alone.
- minimilian 5y ago> supercomma duplocomma
- denton-scratch 5y agoAs a supercomma, a semicolon is necesssary as a list-separator, if you have list-items with embedded commas. Your "three families" example is spot-on. I wouldn't know how to rewrite it, without using some Powerpoint-derived notation, such as bullet-lists, which just isn't conversational.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- HKH2 5y agoIt's quicker to fix a run-on sentence comma with a semicolon rather than a full stop; you don't have to capitalise a letter.