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Chapitre D'ouvrage Année : 2016

THE SEMICOLON-A FUNNY KIND OF SILENCE

Lynn Blin

Résumé

Punctuation or "pointing" as it was originally termed, plays a predominate role in regards to emphasis, meaning, an ultimately the interpretation of texts. The semicolon, defined by Rozakis as the "love child of a period and a comma", plays a specific and complex role in regards to pause, rhythm, and expectation. It thus offers both the writer and the reader what I have termed a "funny kind of silence". This paper will examine the semicolon first through an historical perspective with regard to how it first came to be in the history of punctuation. We will then consider it through a more contemporary lens, examining some of the controversy it has stirred up and the issues raised by its use in recent times. We will conclude with a study of how the semicolon is used in news articles and literature-notably in The New Yorker magazine. Visually more outstanding than the comma or the period, the semicolon is the most demanding of punctuation marks for the reader. It is the most intimate of punctuation marks, and it is perhaps for this reason that it is the most controversial.
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Dates et versions

hal-04166202 , version 1 (19-07-2023)

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  • HAL Id : hal-04166202 , version 1

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Lynn Blin. THE SEMICOLON-A FUNNY KIND OF SILENCE. Point, Dot, Period.. The Dynamics of Punctuation in Text and Image, 2016, 1-4438-8806-0. ⟨hal-04166202⟩

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