J’ai toujours eu un rapport de fascination avec le point-virgule ; me voilà dans la lignée de John Irving et d’Herman Melville… On ajoute une dose de contextualisation anglophone (sur l’usage dégénéré de la ponctuation en anglais) et ça nous donne ce petit article savoureux : « Sex and the semicolon ».
the punctuation conversation has shifted its focus from the apostrophe to a more subtle and debatable punctuation mark: the semicolon.
The credit probably belongs to Trevor Butterworth, who in 2005 – citing Truss as partial inspiration – wrote a 2,700-word essay on the semicolon in the Financial Times. Butterworth, who had worked in the States, wondered why so many Americans shared Donald Barthelme’s sense that the mark was « ugly as a tick on a dog’s belly. » His answer: As a culture, we Yanks distrust nuance and complexity.
(photo : « ti;!;!;! », xueexueg, licence CC)
