

The semicolon falls between terminal marks and the comma its strength is equal to that of the colon.
#Seicolon fragment definition full
full stops, exclamation marks, and question marks) indicate the end of a sentence, the comma, semicolon, and colon are normally sentence-internal, making them secondary boundary marks. Natural languages English Īlthough terminal marks (i.e. The semicolon is sometimes used, when the preceding member of the sentence does not of itself give a complete sense, but depends on the following clause and sometimes when the sense of that member would be complete without the concluding one as in the following instances. The Semicolon is used for dividing a compound sentence into two or more parts, not so closely connected as those which are separated by a comma, nor yet so little dependent on each other, as those which are distinguished by a colon. In 1798, in Lindley Murray's English Grammar, the semicolon is introduced as follows: So that they are in the same proportion to one another as the Sembrief, the Minim, the Crotchet, and the Quaver, in Music. The Period is a pause in quantity or duration double of the Colon the Colon is double of the Semicolon and the Semicolon is double of the Comma. In 1762, in Robert Lowth's A Short Introduction to English Grammar, a parallel is drawn between punctuation marks and rest in music: In 1644, in Richard Hodges' The English Primrose, it is written: Īt a colon, a little more than the former The aim of the breathing, according to Jonson, is to aid understanding.

: 52 Īround 1640, in Ben Jonson's book The English Grammar, the character is described as "somewhat a longer breath" compared to the comma. Īlthough it is a universal confusion of affairs(,) such that everyone regrets their own fate above all others and there is no one, who would not rather anywhere else in the world, than there, where he is, prefer to be: yet I have no doubt, at the present time for an honest man, to be in Rome, is the worst form of misery.Īround 1580, Henry Denham starts using the semicolon "with propriety" for English texts and more widespread usage picks up in the next decades. You, what riches are worth, gladly consider what virtue (is worth), not so much.Įtsi ea perturbatio est omnium rerum, ut suae quemque fortunae maxime paeniteat nemoque sit, quin ubivis, quam ibi, ubi est, esse malit: tamen mihi dubium non est, quin hoc tempore bono viro, Romae esse, miserrimum sit. Tu, quid divitiae valeant, libenter spectas quid virtus, non item. Reason teaches, if fortune is adverse, not to complain too much if favorable, to rejoice in moderation. Ratio docet, si adversa fortuna sit, nimium dolendum non esse si secunda, moderate laetandum. Public, private sacred, profane yours, another's. Publica, privata sacra, profana tua, aliena. Here are four examples used in the book to illustrate this: : 49 The comma, semicolon, colon, and period are seen as steps, ascending from low to high the semicolon thereby being an intermediate value between the comma, and colon. In particular, Manuzio motivates the need for punctuation ( interpungō) to divide ( distinguō) sentences, and thereby make them understandable. In 1561, Manuzio's grandson, also called Aldo Manuzio, explains the semicolon's use with several examples in Orthographiae ratio. Moreover, it is used in 1507 by Bartolomeo Sanvito, who was close to Manuzio's circle. The punctuation also appears in later writings of Bembo. In 1496, the semicolon is attested in Pietro Bembo's book De Aetna printed by Aldo Manuzio. In the QWERTY keyboard layout, the semicolon resides in the unshifted homerow beneath the little finger of the right hand and has become widely used in programming languages as a statement separator or terminator.

The semicolon is one of the least understood of the standard marks, and so it is not as frequently used by many English speakers. Semicolons can also be used in place of commas to separate items in a list, particularly when the elements of the list themselves have embedded commas. When a semicolon joins two or more ideas in one sentence, those ideas are then given equal rank. In the English language, a semicolon is most commonly used to link (in a single sentence) two independent clauses that are closely related in thought, such as when restating the preceding idea with a different expression. The semicolon or semi-colon is a symbol commonly used as orthographic punctuation.
