Ah. I apologize for my getting confused. Seriously.
Explain this to me. A quirk or mannerism is used in particular contexts, but you don’t think that’s what language is? What do you mean by “becomes”? If it’s already in use, what still needs to happen before you accept that it’s language?
Apology accepted and appreciated.
What I mean is that a quirk or mannerism is nothing more than that until and unless it becomes widely repeated and thereby becomes commonplace despite being illogical or nonsensical. I’m pretty sure that’s how “I could care less” was born, notwithstanding fanciful efforts to justify it.
So, exactly what DSeid said. But you still needed to correct him for some reason.
Not “correcting”; clarifying. Emphasizing that it takes time for that to happen. That’s what the words “more accurately” mean; they signify a refinement, not a disagreement. And by the way, fuck off. You’ve been a pain in the ass ever since your annoying and completely unnecessary first post here that started this whole kerfuffle.
Myself, I have a problem figuring out when to put a comma and when a semi colon is called for. Its been awhile since school!
You didn’t clarify anything. DSeid said
“widely enough used in particular contexts,” and your clarification was “unless it becomes widely repeated.” Please, share your pedantic explanation of how that was different enough to require clarification.
I had a grand total of 1 post after my initial request to kaylasdad, compared to your 25 posts. But do tell how I’m the pain in the ass here.
I was agreeing with you until impactful but now you’re dead to me.
I usually use a comma where it would be natural to pause if what I was typing was something I was saying aloud.
A semicolon is used when you have two completely different clauses rather than a simple pause in the middle of a clause.
Here’s an example:
“I went to a party, and there I met my friend Stacy.”
“I hate eating shellfish; I haven’t eaten a shrimp cocktail for decades.”
In the first example you’re just pausing briefly before getting to the rest of your sentence. It was a natural break in the narrative. In the second example, you have two different clauses but the first one leads naturally to the second one. If you used a comma instead of a semicolon it would look jarring.
The rule is that if both parts of the sentence can stand alone as sentences (“independent clauses”), use a semicolon.
So in Atamasama’s example, both parts can stand as full sentences on their own. They are “independent clauses”. So they need the semicolon.
If you’d used a comma there (incorrectly), it’s called a “comma splice”.
In Canada (at least until recently), the semicolon guideline was more loose - use it when it seems like a longer pause. So you’ll sometimes see some of our Canadian posters using it differently than USians.
Yes, that’s the basic, general rule. @Atamasama gave a good example. The rule seems to be violated in the first sentence in my previous post, “Not ‘correcting’; clarifying” but that’s only because I was using shortened phrases for brevity. The actual full form of the sentence would been been something like “It’s not ‘correcting’; it is clarifying”, where one can explicitly see the two independent clauses.
I’m not aware of the usage being any different in Canada than it is anywhere else.
Now let’s discuss when it’s appropriate to use a comma and when to use a semicolon before adding “Eh?” to the end of a sentence. 
Yeah, I tend to do that in texts and sometimes here when I’m posting from my phone.
Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
In a Yiddish accent, it’s the other way around: “She dances beautifully, that girl.”
I’m going to take this opportunity to say that despite all the invective hurled at me as a supposed intractable “prescriptivist”, this sort of thing doesn’t bother me all. In fact it’s rather cute, though certainly not appropriate in formal contexts. And one can hardly object to imperfect English being spoken by those for whom English is a second or maybe even a third language.
The best way I can describe what does bother me is to say that it’s native English speakers who butcher the language because they’re fucking morons. The ones who “should of” done something. The ones who “literally could care less” about things. The ones who don’t know what apostrophes are for. The ones who don’t even know what words mean.
“The goggles. They do nothing!”
Funny enough, I also associate that speech pattern with melodramatic comic book dialog (and/or monologues), particularly Gold/Silver Age.
Just reach your hand straight out, palm up, fingers curled as if you’re holding an invisible apple, and say it fervently.
The spirit of this thread compels me to point out that it’s actually “The goggles do nothing!”
Damn it!