Chin Music Press - Adventures in Publishing - In praise of the semicolon

In praise of the semicolon

We spent the Thanksgiving weekend proofing the final draft of Do You Know... and, as usual, much of the time was used debating arcane points of punctuation and style. Is there a difference in the nuances of "mama" and "mamma"? The dictionary doesn't give us any, but we know that words live beyond the pages of Webster's. Do you hyphenate "African American"? How about "category-four hurricane"? The questions went on and on. And with only one exception, the four of us proofing the final draft found common ground. That one exception was the use of the semicolon.

I love the semicolon; Yuko does too. David Cady dislikes it — so does my brother Dave. The battle lines were clearly drawn, and they are clearly drawn in the literary world as well: We have Gore Vidal, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Evelyn Waugh on our side. They have Donald Barthelme, Ernest Hemingway and E.B. White on theirs.

I was all set to write a lengthy ode to the semicolon when I found that it had already been done recently by Timothy Butterworth of the Financial Times. In his splendid piece, "Pause Celebre," he argues that the semicolon is embraced in Britain and considered part of "punctuation's axis of evil" in the US. He also argues that the semicolon has a political bent these days. And while he has been accused of stretching his case, who can argue that the Bush administration prefers nuance to simple declarative sentences? No one, of course. Isn't it time, then, to bring the semicolon — the much abused punctuation mark — back with a vengeance, giving it new life in the way @ was resurrected with the advent of email? (And, no, winking emoticons are not enough for the semicolon; it deserves so much more.)

The semicolon is a half note to the comma's quarter note and the period's full stop; it draws together what the period — and the dash — separate. It is all about individual style; the writer forces a half breath and refuses the full stop. The writer draws attention to himself; and he bathes in it. My favorite use of the semicolon cited in Butterworth's piece is from literary critic F.L. Lewis: "... a writer should be able to vary his length; like a bowler."

Go ahead; call it a sentence fragment. But the semicolon is coming back; you heard it here first.

Bruce Rutledge >> November 30, 2005

Comments

I think there is a difference between mama and mamma when it comes to New Orleans Yat-speak. There's this subtle extension you do with the first syllable. You draw it out a little more, and spelling it "mamma" just looks ever so slightly more correct, at least to my eyes.

Which is weird since it gets used in combinations where everything else is so scrunched together, e.g., "ya mamma'n'em" means "your family" (your mamma and them), as in "Didja go by ya mamma'n'em's for Thanksgiving?"

Ray at December 1, 2005 01:05 AM

On semicolons:

I don't like them. I don't like them. I don't like them. I don't like them. I don't like them. I don't like them. I don't like them; but, I can make appropriate exceptions.

They are often disruptive to the reader's eye and to the pace of storytelling when used too much, something I've seen more than I care to recall.

I'll concede that, not being the strongest grammarian, that I may miss the value of these punctuation points from time to time.

There you have it.

Steve

Steve Quinn at December 1, 2005 09:28 AM

Ray, that is an interesting point. I like that phrase: ya mamma 'n' em. Unfortunately, we ended up going with "mama" throughout the book. My brother, a New Orleans resident, said he felt there was a difference in mama and mamma, and we probably should have listened. The point in our book that mentions mama (mamma?) is when Wynton Marsalis is asked by reporters what he thinks about Barbara Bush's comments in Houston about the evacuees being lucky, and Wynton just says, " I don't like to talk about anybody's mama." It was first spelled mamma, then we changed it. (Ahh, the things we editors spend our days pondering!)

And Steve, fine go join the two Daves and Hemingway and that group. Actually, I hope we don't decide this with a fistfight because your side would probably win. I don't think Evelyn, F. Scott and Gore will be much help. But your point is well taken. The semicolon is a powerful little symbol and, in the wrong hands, it can wreak havoc. It demands a maestro, full of confidence. That's why The Weekly Standard (your team) doesn't use it, and Shakespeare (our team) did.

Bruce Rutledge at December 1, 2005 05:39 PM

Apparently, use of the semicolon has been outlawed in the Canadian province of Alberta because, according to an official statement by local parliamentarian Lew Ringhe, "It disprupts the flow, reading-wise, and we don't want that -- not here, not now, not ever -- as the achievement of smoothness in sentences is a key goal of ours. We're Albertians, for God's sake!"

David at December 1, 2005 07:17 PM

I think that particular usage might be all right. I was thinking of the white Yat pronunciation (think Benny Grunch, or go here if you wanna hear him tawk: http://www.bennygrunch.com), but that wouldn't be the same accent that Wynton would have. I went to high school with him and his brother Delfeayo, and they definitely didn't talk like Benny.

There's a great New Orleans pronunciation guide over at the Gumbo Pages at http://www.gumbopages.com/yatspeak.html. Unfortunately it doesn't have audio clips.

Ray at December 2, 2005 07:39 AM

You know I kind of think that the Mama/Mamma thing might be a regional difference. My stepfather's family is about as Southern as it gets (they moved from GA to FL because they needed to be more Southern, if you can believe that!) He always called his mother Mamma/Momma, but with two "m"s.

Of course I doubt anyone will care about this in the long run, it is certainly the sort of thing that drives editors crazy and no one else! ha!

AS for African American, you probably already figured this out but I've never seen hyphens for any American ethnic groups (Chinese American, Native American, etc.)

Aren't you guys losing your minds about right now?! ha!

Colleen at December 3, 2005 12:31 PM

Also in the pro-semicolon camp is Lewis Thomas, who said: "I have grown fond of semicolons in recent years. ... It is almost always a greater pleasure to come across a semicolon than a period. The period tells you that that is that; if you didn't get all the meaning you wanted or expected, anyway you got all the writer intended to parcel out and now you have to move along. But with a semicolon there you get a pleasant little feeling of expectancy; there is more to come; read on; it will get clearer."

Craig at May 2, 2006 08:07 PM