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First off, I apologies for the redundancy of this question. I am aware that there are already several questions dedicated to the use of colons and/or semicolons. However, non of the questions I saw seemed to address sentences with grammatical structure similar to my own and I was unable to determine what punctuation I should use. Should I use a colon, semicolon, or some other punctuation? (I will indicate with a question mark the location of the punctuation in question.)

  1. Far from an encumbrance, he regarded her aspirations as an occasion to mold himself to the cherished contours of her heart ? to let her rupture his soul into metamorphosis.
  2. It was the only way he knew to requite the scandalous honor she had bestowed upon him in her obstinate determination to wed him ? an unprecedented impropriety that had incensed her family, but one which would always wreathe his memory in pleasure.

In neither example do I feel confident that the resulting halves as divided by ? are independent clauses or complete sentences (a requisite for semicolons, I believe). At least, I do not believe that starting from and following to let her rupture & an unprecedented impropriety are stand alone sentences (given the manner in which they begin). So I am hesitant to use a semicolon. However, I am not sure that either of these examples are congruent with any of the grammatical structures outlined in other questions as warranting the employment of a colon. Irregardless, I feel that a mere comma would be insufficient.

Peter
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  • Consider the Em dash. -- Two hyphens on the keyboard, which most word processors will convert to a 1/M dash. – Xanne Mar 08 '17 at 01:52
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    An Em dash would indeed work. You can type an Em dash (—) directly on a mac at least with shift-alt-dash. An En dash is a bit narrower – used to separate a parenthetical statement – which you can type using alt-dash. If you don't like either of those, I'd suggest a comma for the first and a colon for the second. Doesn't need to be a complete sentence to use a comma. Also 'an unprecedented…' elaborates on 'her determination to wed him' and so a colon is just what you want. – Jangari Mar 08 '17 at 02:16
  • @Jangari, I much appreciate, and will use your suggestion for comma and colon. It was useless submitting either sentence to any free online grammar checkers since they simply stated that both colon or semicolon were accurate in both examples (which I doubted). – Peter Mar 08 '17 at 03:40
  • @Jangari, As an aside, in the following article "dashes" are explained without making distinction between Em & En. (http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/semi-colons-colons-and-dashes/) Firstly, is 3. to mark "bonus phrases" (under the explanation of dash usage) the same as a parenthetical statement? Secondly, the dash that the article uses appears to me to be an Em dash (though I could be mistaken). Are Em & En dashes limited to specific purposes distinct from each other? – Peter Mar 08 '17 at 03:48
  • @Peter, in my bolshy opinion, punctuation is just an orthographic representation of intonation and we should use whatever we feel is right, and that there shouldn't be any specific purposes or rules. I recall Em dashes being used by James Joyce as an open quote, though, confusingly, he doesn't use anything for a close quote. Quite difficult to read given our modern use of quote marks. See here: https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/j/joyce/james/j8u/episode1.html, especially the quote beginning "— Thanks, old chap," – Jangari Mar 08 '17 at 03:54
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    Also, for a perhaps more authoritative description of Em, En and ø-dashes, see http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/2116/when-should-i-use-an-em-dash-an-en-dash-and-a-hyphen – Jangari Mar 08 '17 at 03:56
  • @ Jangari, I agree with you in regards to the purpose of punctuation (as well as spelling and grammar, I might add), and I often find myself breaking beyond convention. However, I often wish to understand the rules before I break them. – Peter Mar 08 '17 at 04:33
  • & as for James Joyce: perhaps the quote reads clearer as: "—Thanks, old chap. (he cried briskly.) That will do nicely." But I agree that there is a precedent established by some of the classics to take great stylistic liberty with punctuation. E.E.Cummings, for example, writes in such a manner that is incomprehensible unless the reader adjusts their approach. And I have come to appreciate the sort of quiet that the mental switching of gears required for his poetry brings to my mind. – Peter Mar 08 '17 at 04:43

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