But does this mean: civilisational collapse; a shift in language; or a wild decline in pedantry?
Reposted from
Matthias Eberl
Just when you thought it couldn't possibly get any worse.
Comments
I use them less in my fiction – but I definitely do use them.
Now I punctuate into a plastic bag.
https://fantasyhandbook.wordpress.com/2021/05/11/die-semicolon-die/
The question for the immediate future is: how rapidly will the aggressive reappearance of semi-colons become a contestation between assertions of human authorship versus cuckoo AI?;
....
“He liked ducks: mallards, mostly, but also tree ducks.”
But…
“He liked ducks; the feathers comforted him.”
Which is legit anyway, but by a different route, IIRC.
“I am tall; you are not so tall
vs
“I am tall: I have long legs.”
But that’s just me.
What puzzles me is that IME British writers often prefer commas to semicolons when joining independent clauses. Now they're doing it even less???
I had absolutely no idea why I'd done it or why they were impressed.
Peaches; penumbras; pedants priming their prose.