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I called to check in; hope all is well. I have some great news; just wanted you to be the first to hear it. Call me back!

RoseDavie
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    The sentences are breezy and informal; why worry about the "grammatically" of semi-colon usage? – Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_ Mar 18 '21 at 18:29
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    BTW...the Grammar tag is "...for questions about morphology and syntax, the two elements of grammar." Punctuation is a style issue. – Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_ Mar 18 '21 at 19:11
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    Not good in formal use (one could drop marks) but fine in casual conversation (sounds less stilted). Acceptability and grammaticality aren't exactly the same. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 18 '21 at 19:18
  • @Cascabel Thank you so much! I'll edit the tag! You're right that there's no need to worry about them in terms of grammar/punctuation, but I'm asking to know if they'd be okay if written in a formal context. I understand that they're okay as they sound spoken (even though they're written), but I was wondering how they'd be perceived :D – RoseDavie Mar 18 '21 at 19:19
  • @Cascabel ... and the acceptability of subject deletion? And when tagged on to an independent clause after a semicolon? (I'd possibly use this style rather than full stop and capitalisation where the clauses are closely connected semantically.) – Edwin Ashworth Mar 18 '21 at 19:19
  • @EdwinAshworth Thank you so much! That's what I was wondering about! – RoseDavie Mar 18 '21 at 19:20
  • @EdwinAshworth Hmmnn...that could be on-topic, provided there is no duplicate. I assume you have already found one? Or at least we could propose better examples? – Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_ Mar 18 '21 at 19:23
  • Ah; I was about to bullet-point your examples, but they're running text. Too many semicolons gets quirky. I'd use one semicolon, then a dash. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 18 '21 at 19:24
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    @Cascabel Conversational deletion is covered in various places, such as 'Good to hear that ...' vs 'Glad to hear that ...'. Subject deletion after a semicolon probably hasn't, but informal grammar is fairly predictable in what extras are allowed. The only problem I can see is that subject deletion is informal whereas semicolons aren't. – Edwin Ashworth Mar 18 '21 at 19:30
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    I am going to propose an extremely heretical thought, but perhaps the pandemic and the internet have changed the usage of writing to be more than just an expression of spoken language. It is taking on a life of its own, and as we all know, language evolves... – Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_ Mar 18 '21 at 20:47

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