Perusing telegraph manuals reveals that Morse code is to the semicolon what weedkiller is to the dandelion. Punctuation was charged at the same rate as words, and their high price — trans-Atlantic cables originally cost a still-shocking $5 per word — meant that short, punchy lines with minimal punctuation were necessary among businessmen and journalists.Read the rest:
Has Modern Life Killed the Semicolon? (Slate)
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comments: 2
Interesting article. I tend to use a lot of semicolons, to the point where Poe would probably be dismayed by my writing style.
Perhaps Sarkozy should adopt the semicolon as a project; then again, given his record, I shudder to think of the havoc he could wreak on la langue de Molière.
I was semicolon-crazy in my grad student days, with "sentences" running a third of a page or so, until a thoughtful professor staged an intervention in the margin. : )
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