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CHAPTER 4
2. Semicolons
Semicolons are used without coordinating conjunctions, but they can conjoin only fairly short sentences.
Sentence # 1 ; Sentence #2
Books are sold here; software and magazines are next door.
Semicolons can also be used with sentence transitions (conjunctive ad- verbs), such as however,thus, or therefore.
Sentence #1 ; however, Sentence #2 ; thus,
; therefore
When teaching the comma + coordinator and semicolon uses in com- pound sentences, it is useful to mention that these two patterns largely have the same power to conjoin short simple sentences and mark their bound- aries. However, their power is less than that of a period (.). (For complex sentences with subordinate clauses, see chap. 10.)
PUNCTUA TION
The easiest punctuation rule of all can be obtained from the system of sen- tence slots:
No single (lonely) commas can be used between required sentence slots.
Commas are separators of sentence elements, and the essential sentence slots, such as subjects and verbs, verbs and direct objects, and direct objects and indirect objects cannot be separated. No matter how long the subject or object noun phrases can be, the required sentence slots are never separated
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by single commas. However, paired commas (e.g., Smith [2003], whore-
searched xxx), mark modifiers of the head/subject noun phrase. Such modifi- ers are part of the noun phrase.
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Appositives, My father, the scientist, are discussed in chapter 5. These structures actually oc-
cur inside the subject slot and are set off by two commas.
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