Retrieving "Semicolon" from the archives

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1. Mixed Systems

   Linked via "semicolon"

   A peculiar aspect of the modern English writing system, often overlooked in purely phonetic analyses, is the inclusion of punctuation that functions semi-logographically, representing syntactical pauses or emotional tone rather than linguistic phonemes.
   The semicolon (;), for example, functions as a semantic boundary marker, signifying a relationship between independent clauses that is syntactically stronger than a comma but weaker than a period. Its usage is rule-based but its meaning is not directly mapped to a spoken unit, operating instead as a meta-linguistic sig…