a long felt want (a desirable draught-excluder)

I like semi colons. There's not so much call for them in YA perhaps, but now and then they're just what you need.

Isn't there a further option - the dash? Emma used it this way, earlier:

I would have one - or perhaps a colon

a long felt want (a desirable draught-excluder)

lol

[quote]a long felt want (a desirable draught-excluder)[/quote[

LOL!

Also the famous fine-tooth (or fine-toothed) comb, which in popular parlance has somehow transbobulated into the fine tooth-comb, even though nodody I know ever combs their teeth!

R x

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P.S. I love semi-colons; I'd be lost without them.

This weeks' local paper has arrived, and all the comma splices have been removed and replaced with semi-colons.

So obviously it wasn't just me that noticed!

Isn't there a further option - the dash?

Dashes are - well - all things to all men, aren't they.

I think they're very useful, but because they do so many things they're also quite vague in use: a dash doesn't express the relationship of the things each side of it, the way that a : says something different from a ;, and different again from a . or a , .

And like all punctuation (quoth David Crystal) they have two separate jobs which are often not quite compatible: one to express what a sentences means and how it works, and one to express how a sentence sounds and what it's expressing.

I had a phase of rather overusing dashes. I seem to have got over it now.

Yes, they're rather too easy to fling about, dashes, aren't they?

I think Emma's right, the dash isn't precise enough to replace the semi-colon, it's perhaps too casual. But an ideal substitution when casual is what's required.

But an ideal substitution when casual is what's required.

had a phase of rather overusing dashes. I seem to have got over it now.

Dashes are - well - all things to all men, aren't they.

Well, this bash the dash is very timely, because I am currently have a search for the little devils, having been sprinkling them about too liberally.

And giving myself a slap on the wrist when I find one that should be something else. And finding too many for comfort.

Casual? Yes, I see that. Or punctuation when you've had a glass of wine too many.

though nodody I know ever combs their teeth!

If you use a circular sweeping method with your toothbrush (as dentists recommend - or did) isn't that the same as combing?

Why does cleaning of teeth have to be so narrowly defined as 'brushing'? Surely if you do a mouthwash, you're washing your teeth? And if you use a hard-bristled toothbrush, you're scrubbing them?

As someone with no hair to comb (I'm talking scalp only here), the concept of combing my teeth is quite appealing.

This is just a diversion from dash-hunting by the way. And back to semi-colons, aren't they marvellous things?

There's not so much call for them in YA perhaps

YA don't know what they're missing. Don't understand that, EmmaH.

This talk of dashes made me reach for Tristram Shandy, which is full of them:

He flew like lightning - there was a slope of three miles and a half - we scarce touched the ground - the motion was most rapid - most impetuous - 'twas communicated to my brain - my heart partook of it - By the great God of day, said I, looking towards the sun, and thrusting my arm out of the fore-window of the chaise, as I made my vow, "I will lock up my study door the moment I get home, and throw the key of it ninety feet below the surface of the earth, into the draw-well at the back of my house."

I like the way he used the dashes (which are strangely long ones in the book) to create the impression of haste - skipping over the boring bits - loose connection between the different clauses - whole idea of the story being told by an inspired nutter. A bitlikeeecummings.

Lots of good views here. I have another view, probably from a teaching angle. Which is, that with some writers, using semi-colons can represent indecisiveness: not deciding between a comma or a full stop. So, it could be useful for a time to advise them not to use semi-colons. Once they've developed decisiveness that builds flow, they can re-introduce semi-colons, only now they'll be aiding the flow not avoiding it.

(which are strangely long ones in the book)

Those are em-dashes - you use them when an idea or speech is interrupted. Hence how much they crop up in writing like Tristram Shandy, or indeed Emily Dickenson, whose "idiosyncractic" punctuation was much tidied-up by earlier editors, because the poor dear didn't know what she was doing, being a hysterical female hermit , and has only recently been restorded.

It's only since typewriter and computer keyboards that the distinctions between em-dash, en-dash (which come in parenthetical pairs) and hyphen have all been collapsed into one single thing.

And when you see someone using two dashes together, it's the traditional way for the typewriter generation to indicate an em-dash. You can even get the computer to turn them into an em-dash as an autocorrect.

not deciding between a comma or a full stop.

Although generally speaking - and I haven't checked this exhaustively - I'm fairly sure there aren't many places where both a comma and a full stop would be correct.

Right, maybe. But not correct.

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tsk! Not enough coffee.

" being an]/b] hysterical female hermit , and has only recently been restorded."

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third time lucky:

"being an hysterical female hermit, and has only recently been restored."