IMAGI-BLOG
RIP Semicolon
Submitted by imaginary ash on April 9, 2008.This one's dedicated to Dana and Liz and all the other editors of the world. Hat tip to Fat Asian Baby for coming across this Gawker post that's full of hilarity for all us grammar geeks:
And Now He's Dead: Semicolon; Punctuation Mark
The Semicolon died this week at the age of 417 from complications of irrelevancy and misuse. Semicolon was born in England in 1591 to Ben Jonson, the first notable writer to use them "systematically." The mark of punctuation dedicated its career to connecting independent clauses and indicating a closer relationship between the clauses than a period does. But mostly it just confused the shit out of English students everywhere.
Read on here.
I have an inkling that the perpetually misunderstood ellipses will be next to go.
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michael said on April 9, 2008:
I don't know, if Kurt Vonnegut hated it then that's a funeral I can get behind. Let's replace it with the exclacomma, when you want to shout the first part of a sentence but not the second. "Quiet[!,] the baby is sleeping."
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imaginary stella said on April 9, 2008:
@ Erik, I am absolutely a user of the semi-colon too. In fact, today at work, I'm going to intentionally pepper the copy I write with as many semicolons as I can; however, I'm not sure if my editor will let it stand.
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Imaginary Shrie said on April 9, 2008:
I love the semicolon. I think it is an essential grammar tool that dumbass students should just get used to seeing. Damn... the world we live in never ceases to surprise me.
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imaginary ash said on April 9, 2008:
The point isn't that we should do away with the semicolon; the point is that many many many people don't know how to use it properly. Gawker just made a funny out of it all; it was a pretty good funny too, I thought. I also use the semicolon a lot; see how I keep dropping the SC?
I absolutely agree with your Strunk & White regime, Erik. And I also like the notion of the exlacomma, Michael! Hooray for innovation in punctuation!
Don't get me started on the em-dash/colon conundrum.
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imaginary dana said on April 9, 2008:
Oh semicolon, how do I love thee; I love thee even more than you're misused.
{That sentence needs an questa-semicolon!!}
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Imaginary Shrie said on April 9, 2008:
Right... I guess I'm saying that this is just another example of how our society's education standards are slipping. I'm pretty sure that I don't know as much as I should about grammar/punctuation. And I know more than one person my age that finds basic writing and spelling more than difficult.
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Levi said on April 9, 2008:
I'm sick of all these semicolon death-knells. I use it all the time; it's an invaluable piece of punctuation. For some recent good semicolon news, see this NY Times article, or the Stranger concert listings (there have been a couple recent shows that included bands with commas in their names such as Palmer, AK; on such listings the band names are separated with semicolons).
Long live the semicolon!
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Jon Harthun said on April 9, 2008:
I love the semicolon; a love that has transfered to the excla-comma.
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Reviews
Erik Gonzalez said on April 9, 2008:
Uh, I use the semicolon. Those who want it gone can bite me. Lazy students, that is the real problem around here. Hey, Generation Z, get off your arses and actually learn how to write rather than trying to "text" your way through everything. I can't even enumerate how much I would love it if every graduating high school student was given a copy of Strunk & White's Elements of Style and were forced to read the darn thing. Bah!