Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2022 December 14
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December 14[edit]
Use of a semicolon in this sentence[edit]
In the page "Elaea", there's this sentence (bold, pronunciation, and parenthetical removed):
Elaea was the ancient name of an island in the Propontis (Sea of Marmara), in Bithynia, mentioned by Pliny (v. 32); but it is not certain which of the several small islands he means.
I replaced the semicolon with a comma, but I'm unsure if I was correct to do so or not. Could anyone please tell me if it's okay to use a comma in place of the semicolon in this instance? Thylacine24 (talk) 04:53, 14 December 2022 (UTC)
- The semicolon seems better. It's essentially two sentences linked together. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 06:33, 14 December 2022 (UTC)
- "but"s are preceded by commas the great majority of the time (semicolons not so much), so it's fine. Clarityfiend (talk) 07:02, 14 December 2022 (UTC)
- You linked to the disambiguation page Elaea, but the sentence occurs on page Elaea (island). IMO either choice of punctuation is unobjectionable. The version with a semicolon was copied straight from a cited source.[1] --Lambiam 07:18, 14 December 2022 (UTC)
- As noted, either is probably fine, but semicolons are recommended "to replace a comma when you use a coordinating conjunction to link independent clauses that already contain commas." Since the clause "Elaea was the..." contains commas within it, semicolons can be used before the "but it is..." clause. --Jayron32 15:00, 14 December 2022 (UTC)
- The sentence is OK, but it's a bit ungainly and I would recommend rewriting it into two sentences, as follows: Elaea was the ancient name of an island in the Propontis (Sea of Marmara), in Bithynia, mentioned by Pliny (v. 32). However, it is not certain to which of the several small islands Pliny was referring. --Viennese Waltz 18:25, 14 December 2022 (UTC)
- In general, it is often better to rewrite such sentences so they don't have to use a semi-colon. There is that... --Jayron32 19:53, 14 December 2022 (UTC)
- I have often wondered about the source of this prejudice against the semicolon. I like the semicolon and use it frequently. This book review may be of interest. Deor (talk) 20:16, 14 December 2022 (UTC)
- Two short sentences are always better than one long one. --Viennese Waltz 21:27, 14 December 2022 (UTC)
- Not if we end up with a "however" to replace it. We tend to have too many "however"s in our articles. Two short sentences are generally better than one awkward sentence, though. — kwami (talk) 01:27, 15 December 2022 (UTC)
- So I reshaped it. --jpgordon𝄢𝄆𝄐𝄇 16:25, 15 December 2022 (UTC)
- I have often wondered about the source of this prejudice against the semicolon. I like the semicolon and use it frequently. This book review may be of interest. Deor (talk) 20:16, 14 December 2022 (UTC)
- In general, it is often better to rewrite such sentences so they don't have to use a semi-colon. There is that... --Jayron32 19:53, 14 December 2022 (UTC)
- The sentence is OK, but it's a bit ungainly and I would recommend rewriting it into two sentences, as follows: Elaea was the ancient name of an island in the Propontis (Sea of Marmara), in Bithynia, mentioned by Pliny (v. 32). However, it is not certain to which of the several small islands Pliny was referring. --Viennese Waltz 18:25, 14 December 2022 (UTC)