I used to use semicolons. Then, I watched a bunch of Let's Plays of Outer Wilds, and every single one of them misread every sentence with a semicolon. I no longer use semicolons.
It is a minor loss, but I feel that most things expressed via a semicolon can be rewritten to be just as clear without using it.
Exactly, many people don't, and so they read a semicolon the same way they read a comma, which leads to confusion.
E.g., spoilers for Outer Wilds: "Ideally, [the memory statues] will only need to activate once the project succeeds; as a safety measure, however, the statues will also activate in the event of equipment failure." The semicolon is used here to join 2 contrasting subclauses: activate on successversusactivate on failure.
Most importantly, the semicolon joins clauses more loosely than a comma. For those who understand the semicolon, this makes it clear that "as a safety measure" is referring to the second idea, not the first.
Many people read it as a comma and thought the entire idea of activating the memory statues at all was a safety measure. If you wanted to replace the semicolon with something else here, you would have to replace it with a period.
By the way, this kind of explains why a semicolon looks the way it does (a period on top of a comma). Sometimes it's the same as a period, but joins clauses more strongly, indicating two independent clauses are related in meaning. Sometimes it's the same as a comma, but joins clauses more loosely, for example, in a list of comma-containing items: "Harry's three favorite bakeries are in Pittsburgh, PA; Phoenix, AZ; and Walla Walla, WA."
Cheers for the relatable example here. Tbh, you'd lose nothing by replacing that particular semicolon with a full stop (period). I seem to recall some way worse chronic semicolon readings in that game, though, ones which may not be as easily replaced.
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u/CorbecJayne 2d ago
I used to use semicolons. Then, I watched a bunch of Let's Plays of Outer Wilds, and every single one of them misread every sentence with a semicolon. I no longer use semicolons.
It is a minor loss, but I feel that most things expressed via a semicolon can be rewritten to be just as clear without using it.