The Guardian reports that there is a marked decline of semicolon usage in english books..
New analysis from Babbel uncovers a stark decline: semicolon usage in British English books has fallen by nearly 50% in the past two decades. In fact, historical data shows this decline stretches back centuries. 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.
And it’s not just in books. New survey data from Babbel reveals over half (54%) of UK students didn’t know when to replace a comma with a semicolon.
According to The Paris Review the semicolon was born in Venice in 1494. So, it has been around for centuries. And I believe it will continue to exist (despite will be increasingly be trampled by the emojis). Throughout its history it has faced some virulent detractors and valiant supporters.
Antagonists
None more spiteful than Kurt Vonnegut.
Here is a lesson in creative writing.
First rule: Do not use semicolons.
They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college.
“What hokum! What bosh, what baloney, what bilge! The semicolon is a belly-up guppie in a tank of glorious Siamese fighting fish. It’s girly. It is not just probably the most useless of all forms of punctuation. It is absolutely, positively the most useless of all such marks ever invented. Its sole legitimate function is to separate individual elements in a listing of linked elements.” - James J. Kilpatrick, Boston Globe, 2006.
Not really another attack on semicolon, but revulsion, nonetheless,
“When Hemingway killed himself he put a period at the end of his life,” Kurt Vonnegut once said. “Old age is more like a semicolon.” - Kurt Vonnegut
Proponents
Here are some rallying cry for semicolon.
“The semicolon tells you there is still some question about the preceding full sentence; something needs to be added. It is almost always a greater pleasure to come across a semicolon than a full stop. The full stop tells you that is that; if you didn’t get all the meaning you wanted or expected, you got all the writer intended to parcel out and now you have to move along. But with a semicolon there you get a pleasant little feeling of expectancy; there is more to come; read on; it will get clearer.” - Lewis Thomas, in Notes on Punctuation
“Semicolon…the image of the grocery bags, reinforces the idea that semicolons are all about balance.” - Mary Norris, The New Yorker.
“I tend to write longer sentences and use the semicolon so as not to have to break the longer sentences into shorter ones that would suggest things are not connected that I want people to see as connected. Short sentences make for fast reading; often you want slow reading.” - David Malouf, Australian Novelist
“I wonder why I ever bothered with sex; there’s nothing in this breathing world so gratifying as an artfully placed semicolon.” - Hilary Mantel, in her novel, A Place of Greater Safety.