Au revoir to the semi-colon?

I would like to say I'm kidding; I'm not.

One of the polemics setting tongues a-wagging in France today is the potential elimination of the semi-colon from common usage. Le Monde reports earnestly here; Rue89 pulls a poisson d'avril here.   

It's true that the semi-colon is underused in France, must less frequently that in English, to the extent that, when I write in French, I'm sometimes unsure when to use it.  In English you just kind of know: am I joining together two independent phrases without a conjunction like and, but, or so? then I need a semi-colon to avoid a comma splice! But my innate sense of avoiding the comma splice leaves me completely when it comes to French. In fact, my sense of French is that it thrives on the comma splice.

A little research yields the following rules:

• il permet d'équilibrer logiquement une phrase un peu longue (y compris en poésie classique et romantique) ;
• il peut servir de séparateur, dans une énumération (que ce soit dans une liste à puces ou dans le corps d'une phrase), par exemple, si divers éléments de l'énumération (dans la phrase) nécessitent un ou plusieurs regroupements « logiques » successifs ;
• il peut également servir de séparateur intermédiaire entre deux phrases indépendantes, mais dont la signification est liée ;
• on peut le trouver entre les prémisses d'un syllogisme ;
• il remplace la virgule lorsque celle-ci prêterait à confusion comme, par exemple, après un nombre à virgule*

OK, so the rules are basically the same as in English. Good to know. I hope that now that we have all mastered the semi-colon in French, it is not taken out of circulation. 

*Translation

• it allows for a logical balance in longer sentences (including in classical and Romantic poetry)
• it can mark a division (whether it be in a bulleted list or in the body of a sentence), for example, if various elements being listed in the phrase require several successive, logical regroupings
• it can also serve as a division between two independent phrases, whose meaning is shared
• it can be found in the premises of a syllogism
• it replaces the comma when the latter might create confusion, for examaple after a number with a comma [e.g. €1,50]

Comments

[amy, la petite americaine]

"Les francophones accusent d'ailleurs l'influence de la langue anglaise d'être responsable de cet abandon en français."

Oh, what nonsense! The French just love to blame English-speakers for everything, don't they? I agree with you: it seems to me the semi-colon is used *more* in English than in French, in literature if not journalism. My own manuscript makes use of it 112 times!

The point-virgule may be dying, but the semi-colon is alive and well.

[Joe]

Wondering if you saw this a few weeks ago:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/18/nyregion/18semicolon.html

Nice to see you're still blogging!

[badaude]

No semi-colon?
I will NEVER be translated.
Maybe we could start some kind of 'Garde le point-virgule!' campaign?

[Mazarine]

I use colons and semi-colons when I'm text messaging on my cellphone. If either were to disappear entirely, I'd be lost...

[Mazarine]

I should say EVEN when messaging on my cellphone, not exclusively!

[maitresse]

Hey Joe! You too! Thanks for the link, I did see that when it ran but completely forgot about it.

Tis a strange day indeed when the New York MTA can wield a semi-colon and the French intelligentsia are calling for its demise!

Mazarine, you are one craaazy chick :) I wonder if I've ever used a semi-colon in an SMS. I think there I probably tend toward the em-dash :)

Badaude, I'm in! Let's make posters and have a manif!

[Marianne]

Count me in for the demonstration on this one. Reminds me of an article I read at the weekend about the UK letting a large part of the Norfolk Broads fall into the sea, and just redrawing the map minus a couple of villages; unthinkable. I am guilty of overusing the dash in my texts, emails and blogs. Will be inspired to use the semi-colon more assiduously from now on!

[DaveX]

I've been pushing the "--" for some time now. I find it accomplishes the task well, and brings together the best points of many punctuation marks:

1) The pleasant sense of an upcoming idea, as with a colon.

2) The "but-wait-it's-not-over" of the semi-colon!

3) Some of the finality of the period, but without all drama.

4) As an added bonus-- no hard-and-fast grammatical rules necessary!

Everybody wins! Of course, the semi-colon needs to stick around for smileys ;)

[Matt]

Life would not be the same without the semi-colon; love the way it winks at me.