As an architect who was a professional technical writer, I used semicolons all the time, especially as an organizing element for multiple related, but independent, items appearing after a colon.
I am not willing to declare its demise; no semicolonoscopies for me.
And don't get me started on those who are against use of the Oxford comma.
For all the times various English teachers held forth on the evils of the “comma splice”, not once did one of them say “If you just put a little dot over that comma it will be fine.”
Almost 50 years ago, I worked for a company that did computer-aided transcription of machine shorthand. The Stenotype (or Stenograph — different brand names) machine was played almost like a musical instrument, with different key combinations used for different letters/sounds/phrases. Reporters (as in ‘court reporters’) had to take down everything said, along with who said it and include punctuation to indicate how the words were said, and do it at the same speed that the people were speaking. Nowadays this computer-aided transcription is done right in the machine itself, but back then the machines were fitted with a means of recording which keys were hit and a combination of the computer’s transcription and an editor’s proofreading and corrections produced the final transcript. I got to see and read a lot of reporters’ machine shorthand, and almost all of them were very good and wouldn’t make a lot of mistakes. Those that they made were easily corrected during the editing and transcription process.
There was one guy, though, whose work was the closest thing to perfection that I ever saw. Not only did he almost never make a fingering mistake, but his punctuation was absolutely perfect. He was the only one I ever saw who could HEAR a semicolon. I was in awe of this guy’s abilities. Actually, I still am. I believe he worked at the House of Representatives for quite a while and later moved to a private reporting company. I assume he’s retired now. I’ll bet he can still hear a semicolon, though.
I had an English teacher in high school who could present his information so we could take perfect notes (if we wanted and I did) and we could hear the punctuation. Not even in all my university time did I hear better. But he was honest and strict and the local school board got rid of him in one year. Mr. Bishop in Post, Texas.
I share your love for the semicolon, Gene, if perhaps not quite to the same extent. However, I found the ending to Mr. Lasswell's otherwise praiseworthy commentary quite disappointing:
"But the semicolon will never completely go away, not as long as there are grown-ups around who still think punctuation emoticons are fun, using a ; and a ) to make a winking face and sending it to their teenage children, who are probably as mortified as Edgar Allan Poe. Maybe even vexed." Given the semicolon's many attractive qualities, why in the world did Lasswell feel the need to end with such a cheap shot at its proponents? It's neither humorous nor accurate.
Before someone cites the “fact” that Kurt Vonnegut condemned the semicolon, I urge Gene Pool readers to get out their copies of his book “A Man Without a Country” and look at Chapter 3. (If you don’t have that book, shame on you. I will wait while you order it.) …… The context makes it clear that he is kidding. It might be a clue that he describes semicolons as “transvestite hermaphrodites.” Also, he opens by saying that “don’t use semicolons” is the first rule in creative writing, but he never mentions any other rules. Instead, he changes the subject and promises, for the rest of the book, to tell the reader when he is kidding. “For instance, join the National Guard or the Marines and teach democracy. I’m kidding.” (Prescience was his specialty.) The rest of Chapter 3 is insightful, but it is not about punctuation. I once took a philosophy course at UNC in which we were challenged to refute the statement “a painting is good if and only if it has blue in it.” No one was able to refute it to the professor’s satisfaction, mainly (I think, although I could be wrong) because we took it too seriously.
In the same source I cited, Vonnegut said about semicolons that "All they do is show you’ve been to college.” My college experience, which I think was typical, did not include any lessons in, or even any mention of, punctuation; they assumed that we had had that stuff in high school. More kidding, most likely. I doubt that Vonnegut really believed that using semicolons is an affectation designed to rub one's education into a reader’s face. But if anyone uses it that way, there should be plenty of other, more significant warnings that the writer is putting on airs.
Semicolons serve as a delimiter when items in a list contain commas like a group of capitals and their nations (e.g. Paris, France; London, England and Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso).
But not using it there interrupts the structure and is momentarily confusing, something it is designed to avoid. There is no reason NOT to use it there, so use it.
With words themselves becoming endangered under the onslaught of texting, not in the least surprised that punctuation marks, and the semicolon in particular, are disappearing. It requires a degree of confidence (unlike the exclamation point and question mark) generally lacking in the writing (texting) public at large, similar to booing from the modern performing audience which must rely instead on the cough, the standing ovation, the late entrance and the immediate, if not sooner, exit. While you may well bemoan (as if you don't already have enough to bemoan) the endangerment of the semicolon, I would ask you to remember the fate of the pilcrow (¶), the
manicule (☞), the interrobang" (‽) and even sadly, the mark surely the most felicitous in these times (and this newsletter...), the snark (.~). Although a model of discretion (except when noinks show up in these here parts), it is said that the Empress (Blessed Be Her Name) often weeps behind her Chicago Manual of Style with remembrance of punctuation past before turning in for the night.
Robert Basler. I could not agree more, and I thank you for your efforts to give my mother tongue a semicolonoscopy. Now, if you could just do something about the tragic overuse of parentheses.
If you are writing on a subject about which you are of two minds, the best way to deal with the situation is parenthetically (Cf. J. Heller, “Something Happened.”)
Parentheses are used by losers who don't have the guts to leave something out of what they are writing, but don't have the gumption to start a new sentence.
I've always had a soft spot for semicolons, but I had never thought of them as the intimate lubricants of syntax. I will definitely never use them the same way again.
I was just about to comment that I bet Hemingway didn’t use semicolons since he was a write directly and concisely kind of guy, but I just scanned one of his chapters and Lo and behold there were semicolons!
Maybe the lowly semi-colon needs a makeover. It's the only punctuation mark that has to share its name with the much more execratory colon. And it is not the small intestine of grammar! I think we should rename it the Astroglide.
As an architect who was a professional technical writer, I used semicolons all the time, especially as an organizing element for multiple related, but independent, items appearing after a colon.
I am not willing to declare its demise; no semicolonoscopies for me.
And don't get me started on those who are against use of the Oxford comma.
Gene's probably beating himself up right now for not naming the column "Semicolonoscopy".
Yes, you fingered him. As it were.
A probing comment. A deep insight.
You two keep poking at it.
A questionable growth to be sure.
I use semicolons—they serve a function, as Gene notes. But then again, I’m an old fart who was taught how to write coherent sentences in school.
For all the times various English teachers held forth on the evils of the “comma splice”, not once did one of them say “If you just put a little dot over that comma it will be fine.”
Obviously, I'm an old dude who went to school back in the day when all this was hand-written.
No kidding! We practiced writing semicolons (and other punctuation marks) by engraving them into clay tablets.
Almost 50 years ago, I worked for a company that did computer-aided transcription of machine shorthand. The Stenotype (or Stenograph — different brand names) machine was played almost like a musical instrument, with different key combinations used for different letters/sounds/phrases. Reporters (as in ‘court reporters’) had to take down everything said, along with who said it and include punctuation to indicate how the words were said, and do it at the same speed that the people were speaking. Nowadays this computer-aided transcription is done right in the machine itself, but back then the machines were fitted with a means of recording which keys were hit and a combination of the computer’s transcription and an editor’s proofreading and corrections produced the final transcript. I got to see and read a lot of reporters’ machine shorthand, and almost all of them were very good and wouldn’t make a lot of mistakes. Those that they made were easily corrected during the editing and transcription process.
There was one guy, though, whose work was the closest thing to perfection that I ever saw. Not only did he almost never make a fingering mistake, but his punctuation was absolutely perfect. He was the only one I ever saw who could HEAR a semicolon. I was in awe of this guy’s abilities. Actually, I still am. I believe he worked at the House of Representatives for quite a while and later moved to a private reporting company. I assume he’s retired now. I’ll bet he can still hear a semicolon, though.
I had an English teacher in high school who could present his information so we could take perfect notes (if we wanted and I did) and we could hear the punctuation. Not even in all my university time did I hear better. But he was honest and strict and the local school board got rid of him in one year. Mr. Bishop in Post, Texas.
They'll get my semicolon when they pry it from my cold, dead, and withered fingers; that goes for the Oxford comma, too.
I share your love for the semicolon, Gene, if perhaps not quite to the same extent. However, I found the ending to Mr. Lasswell's otherwise praiseworthy commentary quite disappointing:
"But the semicolon will never completely go away, not as long as there are grown-ups around who still think punctuation emoticons are fun, using a ; and a ) to make a winking face and sending it to their teenage children, who are probably as mortified as Edgar Allan Poe. Maybe even vexed." Given the semicolon's many attractive qualities, why in the world did Lasswell feel the need to end with such a cheap shot at its proponents? It's neither humorous nor accurate.
I simply love grammar and the construction of language. All the tools.
Before someone cites the “fact” that Kurt Vonnegut condemned the semicolon, I urge Gene Pool readers to get out their copies of his book “A Man Without a Country” and look at Chapter 3. (If you don’t have that book, shame on you. I will wait while you order it.) …… The context makes it clear that he is kidding. It might be a clue that he describes semicolons as “transvestite hermaphrodites.” Also, he opens by saying that “don’t use semicolons” is the first rule in creative writing, but he never mentions any other rules. Instead, he changes the subject and promises, for the rest of the book, to tell the reader when he is kidding. “For instance, join the National Guard or the Marines and teach democracy. I’m kidding.” (Prescience was his specialty.) The rest of Chapter 3 is insightful, but it is not about punctuation. I once took a philosophy course at UNC in which we were challenged to refute the statement “a painting is good if and only if it has blue in it.” No one was able to refute it to the professor’s satisfaction, mainly (I think, although I could be wrong) because we took it too seriously.
I will take advantage of your mention of “A Man Without a Country” to declare my love for that book. That is all.
I came here to quote Vonnegut on semi-colons, but I see I have been beaten to the punch.
In the same source I cited, Vonnegut said about semicolons that "All they do is show you’ve been to college.” My college experience, which I think was typical, did not include any lessons in, or even any mention of, punctuation; they assumed that we had had that stuff in high school. More kidding, most likely. I doubt that Vonnegut really believed that using semicolons is an affectation designed to rub one's education into a reader’s face. But if anyone uses it that way, there should be plenty of other, more significant warnings that the writer is putting on airs.
Semicolons serve as a delimiter when items in a list contain commas like a group of capitals and their nations (e.g. Paris, France; London, England and Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso).
Shouldn't there be a semicolon after "England"? An Oxford semicolon?
Only if there is ambiguity.
But not using it there interrupts the structure and is momentarily confusing, something it is designed to avoid. There is no reason NOT to use it there, so use it.
With words themselves becoming endangered under the onslaught of texting, not in the least surprised that punctuation marks, and the semicolon in particular, are disappearing. It requires a degree of confidence (unlike the exclamation point and question mark) generally lacking in the writing (texting) public at large, similar to booing from the modern performing audience which must rely instead on the cough, the standing ovation, the late entrance and the immediate, if not sooner, exit. While you may well bemoan (as if you don't already have enough to bemoan) the endangerment of the semicolon, I would ask you to remember the fate of the pilcrow (¶), the
manicule (☞), the interrobang" (‽) and even sadly, the mark surely the most felicitous in these times (and this newsletter...), the snark (.~). Although a model of discretion (except when noinks show up in these here parts), it is said that the Empress (Blessed Be Her Name) often weeps behind her Chicago Manual of Style with remembrance of punctuation past before turning in for the night.
The ancient pilcrow
In its fitting grave slumbers
With semicolon
Robert Basler. I could not agree more, and I thank you for your efforts to give my mother tongue a semicolonoscopy. Now, if you could just do something about the tragic overuse of parentheses.
(parentheses are not overused.)
If you are writing on a subject about which you are of two minds, the best way to deal with the situation is parenthetically (Cf. J. Heller, “Something Happened.”)
Parentheses are used by losers who don't have the guts to leave something out of what they are writing, but don't have the gumption to start a new sentence.
I contend there should be a word "parenthesese" to describe a type of writing, a language, heavy in the use of parentheses.
I am a heavy user of both parentheses and em dashes--often in the same sentence--but usually with good reason.
As opposed to users of the semicolon who likewise don't have the guts to start a new sentence or use shorter ones eh?
Who died and made you Hemingway?
What. Can. You. Possibly. Mean?
William Shatner has entered the chat.
Touche′
Parentheses are doctoral dissertations written by one's mother and father. So there.
ISWYDT
Like Astroglide or K-Y Jelly? Dang.
I've always had a soft spot for semicolons, but I had never thought of them as the intimate lubricants of syntax. I will definitely never use them the same way again.
I was just about to comment that I bet Hemingway didn’t use semicolons since he was a write directly and concisely kind of guy, but I just scanned one of his chapters and Lo and behold there were semicolons!
Maybe the lowly semi-colon needs a makeover. It's the only punctuation mark that has to share its name with the much more execratory colon. And it is not the small intestine of grammar! I think we should rename it the Astroglide.
The semicolon is a magical thing that, unlike a comma, stops people from accusing you of run on sentences.