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Semicolon and colon usage

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Latest post Mon, Jun 22 2009 3:17 AM by Anonymous. 4 replies.
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Anonymous  +  402744 Fri, 10 Aug 07 08:52 AM

Hi,

1. I was looking at the punctuation section of cogs.susx.ac.uk website for its help on semicolons and colons and I have some questions on them.

In its "The Semicolon" section, it is noted, "If a suitable connecting word is used, then a joining comma is used, rather than a semicolon: Women's conversation is cooperative, while men's is competitive."

Can you give me some common connecting words that appear a lot in sentences that would make a comma suitable (with simple sentences)? Thank you. 

Do conjunctive adverbs like "however", "hence" and "therefore" can be accepted as suitable  connecting words?

2. In "The Colon" section of the same said website, it was noted that the colon is used to indicate that what follows it is an explanation or elaboration of what precedes it.

Does  that mean what follows can explain or elaborate any part of what precedes it -- any small part?

In "The Semicolon" section of the said website, it was noted that a colon, instead of a semicolon, should be used for this. If a colon is to be used, then what part of the preceding clause does the clause that follows it elaborate or explain?

We've had streams of books on chaos theory: no fewer that twelve since 1988.

   

  
Anonymous
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Mister Micawber  +  402789 Fri, 10 Aug 07 12:01 PM

1.  Can you give me some common connecting words that appear a lot in sentences that would make a comma suitable (with simple sentences)? -- because, while, so, and, or, but, yet, although.  Many example sentences can be found by googling these words.

Do conjunctive adverbs like "however", "hence" and "therefore" can be accepted as suitable  connecting words? -- No; nor can these: meanwhile, thus, consequently, nevertheless.

2. Does that mean what follows can explain or elaborate any part of what precedes it -- any small part? -- Yes, theoretically.

 If a colon is to be used, then what part of the preceding clause does the clause that follows it elaborate or explain?  We've had streams of books on chaos theory: no fewer that twelve since 1988. -- the post-colon portion elaborates the number of books on chaos theory.
Mister Micawber
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'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'
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Anonymous, 2 yr 89 days ago

Thank you, Mr. M. In your answer you said  "the post-colon portion elaborated the number of books on chaos theory" in regard to the following example sentence:

We've had streams of books on chaos theory: no fewer that tweleve since 1988. 

My one possible foible is the fact that I try read the sentence as it is (or as it seems to me) and don't read too much into the sentence to extract information that is possibly there.

Going back to the sentence, only the underlined part "streams" say anything near to what you have brought out -- the number of books. Are you equating "streams" with "the number"? Doesn't that show possibly that you are reading too much into the sentence?    

At the previously mentioned cogs.susx.ac.uk website, it was noted that a semicolon would be impossible in the following example, since the sequence after the comma is not a complete sentence. I don't understand the underlined part, I see that it has a subject, complement -- and that seems to be good enough to be thought of as a valid sentence. Only thing that seems to veer off from it being a sentence is the fact the underlind part is too, too closely related to the main clause (that seems all).   

Women's conversation is cooperative, while men's is competitive.  

 

Mister Micawber  +  403116 Sat, 11 Aug 07 09:59 AM

1-- I certainly don't think I am reading too much into that simple statement, but I don't get your point. What is it?  'Streams' means 'consecutively many', so....?

2-- 'While men's is competitive' is a dependent clause, headed by a subordinate conjunction.  That is why it cannot stand alone as a complete sentence.  Remove the subordinate conjunction, and it is fine-- and a semicolon can then be used:  Women's conversation is cooperative; men's is competitive.
Mister Micawber
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Anonymous, 139 days ago
Do conjunctive adverbs like "however", "hence" and "therefore" can be accepted as suitable connecting words? -- No; nor can these: meanwhile, thus, consequently, nevertheless.


However, "nor" IS a conjunction, so you should have written "No, nor can these:"

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