Is the semi-colon semi-dead?

TOO demure to be a colon but more assertive than a comma, the semicolon is a useful little tool. | Supplied

- MARK LASSWELL

LIKE the fissionable atom, punctuation marks are wee items capable of causing a tremendous release of energy. Passionate disagreement over the use of exclamation points is so familiar that a Seinfeld plotline saw Elaine’s new romance with a writer blow up because he didn’t share her enthusiasm.

Tell that to Tom Wolfe. Or just about anyone who texts in this angry age, when the exclamation point signals “I'm not fuming!” and a period can go off like a gunshot.

No piece of punctuation, though, stirs people up more than the humble semicolon. Too demure to be a colon but more assertive than a comma, the semicolon was introduced in 1494 by Venetian printer and publisher Aldus Manutius. What a useful little tool it has been in its primary role of inserting a graceful pause between two related independent clauses, as in: “RFK jr came to my house; he tore out the medicine cabinet with a crowbar.”