<
https://theconversation.com/semicolons-are-becoming-increasingly-rare-their-disappearance-should-be-resisted-257019>
"A recent study has found a 50% decline in the use of semicolons over the last
two decades. The decline accelerates a longterm trend:
In 1781, British literature featured a semicolon roughly every 90 words; by
2000, it had fallen to one every 205 words. Today, there’s just one
semicolon for every 390 words.
Further research reported that 67% of British students never or rarely use a
semicolon; more than 50% did not know how to use it. Just 11% of respondents
described themselves as frequent users.
These findings may not be definitive. According to the
Guardian, the Google
Books Ngram Viewer database, which surveys novels and nonfiction, indicates
that
semicolon use in English rose by 388% between 1800 and 2006, before falling
by 45% over the next 11 years. In 2017, however, it started a gradual
recovery, with a 27% rise by 2022.
Yet when you put the punctuation mark itself into the database, rather than the
word “semicolon”, you get a quite different result – one that looks very much
like a steady decline."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
