Re: CHAT: Dashes

Christophe Grandsire wrote:
>
> En réponse à Steg Belsky <draqonfayir@...>:
>
> >
> > I also like using dashes.  Although i did have one teacher who tried to
> > dissuade me from using them, so since then i try to use more variety in
> > my punctuation, sometimes even using semicolons.  I have a friend who's
> > an English major who (over)uses semicolons all over the place the way
> > we
> > use dashes.
> >
>
> I HATE semicolons!!!! I hate them so much that I have banned them from my style.
> You will never see any semicolon in my works. I have perfectly enough of the
> full stop and the comma, thank you very much. I also dislike to read a text full
> of semi-colons. Usually, full stops would have been just fine, and semi-colons
> artificially lengthen sentences to no end. In fact, I've never quite understood
> the role of the semi-colon. I've never seen any text where it couldn't be
> replaced by a full stop or by a comma with advantage of a better readability...
I find the odd semicolon more readable than a full stop, when two
sentances are *very* closely related. A lot of full stops gives a text a
very "disjointed" feel.

Also, semicolons are used in convoluted lists: "I gave a copy of my book
to John, the barber; Fred, the doctor; and that hobo who lives under the
bridge." means I gave the book to 3 people, but "... to John, the
barber, Fred, the doctor, and that hobo who lives under the bridge."
means I have the book to 5 people.

> The only language where semicolons are used nicely is Greek. But of course, in
> Greek it's used as a question mark :) .
Aye, that's a nice 'un.

--
Robert

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