The Semicolon

[IorekByrnison]

In today's Guardian.

Don't you just love the minestrone of bollocks that pours out of Will Self when asked to comment on this type of thing:

"Prose has its own musicality, and the more notation the better. I like dashes, double-dashes, comashes and double comashes just as much. The colon is an umlaut waiting to jump; the colon dash is teasingly precipitous."

I have just written the following sentence, which has a comma following a dash. Does that count?

He explains that human beings, insofar as they posssess a tripartite soul - vegetative, animal, and rational -, tend to pursue three distinct goals.

possssssess
that looks a bit odd, why do you need the comma

Ooo I forgot I was in Pedants' Corner, where pickiness is not just tolerated but expected! Mmm, cosy.

Oh, I don't like the comash. I didn't know what one was before this thread but I shan't be using any, double or otherwise.

It is cosy, isn't it? I can imagine ending my days here.

ellbell i hope I haven't offended you it's a lovely sentence

Ellbell I don't think that's quite it. Here is an extract from T. Shandy:

My father was a gentleman of many
virtues, -- but he had a strong spice of
that in his temper which might, or might
not, add to the number. ---- 'Tis known
by the name of perseverance in a good
cause, -- and of obstinacy in a bad one :
Of this my mother had so much know-
ledge, that she knew 'twas to no pur-
pose to make any remonstrance, -- so she
e'en resolved to sit down quietly, and
make the most of it.

More that type of thing - that's from a web text, so I suppose double dashes represent em dashes, not sure about that monster quadruple one!

Now feeling rather depressed at thought of geriatric Pedants' Corner in 2050 where none of us can reliably remember our own names let alone the niceties of grammar.

Ah, I see. Yeuch.

I must go and see if Emily Dickinson uses them. She's a bit of a heroine of mine, but I may have to revise my opinion.

"You practically do not use semicolons at all. This is a symptom of mental defectiveness, probably induced by camp life."
(George Bernard Shaw to TE Lawrence, on the Seven Pillars of Wisdom)

Iorek thanks for linking that. I really enjoyed reading that and am still laughing at Self's pompousity and loved GBS's comment above.

I am a fan of semicolons; I would absolutely hate to see their passing. But a point virgule? Bof.

I cannot imagine life without a semi-colon; it would, quite simply, be not worth living.

Ooops, obviously without all those s's! (Actually, I wrote it in Italian and have translated it back, but thought it'd be showing off to say so )

It needs the 2nd comma because it 'closes off' the 'insofar as they possess [checks number of time s key has been hit!] a tripartite soul' bit from the rest of the sentence, and it can't go before 'vegetative, animal and rational' because that qualifies the 'tripartite soul'. I could have put the 'veggie, animal, rational' bit in brackets, I suppose which would have got rid of the comash issue, but I kind of like dashes.

LOL Swedes. He's a fine one to talk, given his thoughts on spelling.

[slaps hand over mouth to prevent self, due to copyright reasons, from reproducing in full the brilliant Wendy Cope double-dactyl about Emily Dickinson and her punctuational eccentricities]

Ah, Emily Dickinson. "Not a bad poet, for an American."

That is a superb quote, Swedes.

No19 - I like the comash now you have shown it in its natural habitat. It is very curious.

Not remotely offended, stuffit. Can't post in Pedants' Corner and expect not to have your grammar and punctuation torn apart. (Actually was idly wondering how long it would take me to write a page if I ran the grammar of every sentence past you lot. Don't think I'll try it, though... I'm on a deadline!)

(I think the em-dashes in the Tristram Shandy quotation indicate direct speech, don't they? So the monster quadruple one shows the end of one bit of direct speech and the beginning of another (with a different 'voice').)

I should add that my deadline was 1st January .

Back to work...

Oh - I wonder if that's it. Will have a look in a real book later; now, to school run.