The melancholy decline of the semicolon
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The melancholy decline of the semicolon
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Re: The melancholy decline of the semicolon
#2I'm surprised they didn't mention the controversial Vonnegut advice to never use semicolons (e.g., [1]).
[1] https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/vonnegut...
Re: The melancholy decline of the semicolon
#3> The melancholy decline of the semicolon
I blame JavaScript developers. /s
Re: The melancholy decline of the semicolon
#4I'm surprised they didn't mention the controversial Vonnegut advice to never use semicolons (e.g., [1]). [1] https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/vonnegut...
"Or Kurt Vonnegut, who famously advised against their use" is in the article
Re: The melancholy decline of the semicolon
#5But wait; why not give it, another chance.
Re: The melancholy decline of the semicolon
#6I'm surprised they didn't mention the controversial Vonnegut advice to never use semicolons (e.g., [1]). [1] https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/vonnegut...
"Or Kurt Vonnegut, who famously advised against their use" is in the article
If you read the article linked in the comment, they say Vonnegut was, probably, kidding about the semicolons.
Re: The melancholy decline of the semicolon
#7"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.
Re: The melancholy decline of the semicolon
#8But wait; why not give it, another chance.
No, because the semicolon is dead; long live the semicolon.
Re: The melancholy decline of the semicolon
#9Sentence length has gone down a lot, it feels like. So really, the semicolon has not been replaced by the dash, but by the period.
Re: The melancholy decline of the semicolon
#10I 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.