Semicolon - The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark

In Semicolon, Cecelia Watson charts the rise and fall of this infamous punctuation mark, which for years was the trendiest one in the world of letters. But in the nineteenth century, as grammar books became all the rage, the rules of how we use language became both stricter and more confusing, with the semicolon a prime example. Taking us on a lively journey through a range of evidence—from Milton’s manuscripts to Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail” to Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep—Watson reveals how traditional grammar rules make us less successful at communicating with each other than we might think. Even the most die-hard grammar fanatics would be better served by tossing the rule books and learning a better way to engage with language.

About the author

Cecelia Watson is a historian and philosopher of science, and a teacher of writing and the humanities. She is currently on Bard College’s Faculty in Language and Thinking. Previously she was an American Council of Learned Societies New Faculty Fellow at Yale University, where she was also a fellow of the Whitney Center for the Humanities and was jointly appointed in the humanities and philosophy departments.

Additional text

“Cecelia Watson takes the history and logic of this strange, unbalanced punctuation mark and with an eloquently natural voice transforms them into a work of sane, funny, and humanistic philosophy; [couldn’t resist] it’s superb.”

Product details

• Authors: Cecelia Watson
• Publisher: Ecco Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.05.2022
• EAN: 9780062853066
• ISBN: 978-0-06-285306-6
• No. of pages: 224
• Dimensions: 127 mm x 181 mm x 13 mm
• Subjects: Guides > Law, job, finance > Training, job, career; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative linguistics; HISTORY: Social History, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES: Grammar & Punctuation, COMPOSITION & WRITING: COMPOSITION, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES: Writing / General, COMPOSITION & WRITING: ON LANGUAGE, COMPOSITION & WRITING: REFERENCE: GRAMMAR: STYLE, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES: Writing / Authorship, ART: Reference, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES: Writing / Fiction Writing, LITERARY CRITICISM: Semiotics & Theory, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES: Readers, LANGUAGE ARTS & DISCIPLINES: Linguistics / Sociolinguistics