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Comma separating two joined sentences instead of semi-colon

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Pamela

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Dec 7, 2022, 11:38:47 AM12/7/22
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In the following text, I want to make clear that the count of Chinese is
included (or excluded) from the count of Asians.

"Other races get ignored, never mind that there are more Asians in
the world than blacks and whites put together; even when you exclude
the Chinese."

Would it be more correct to use a comma above? If so then what is the
grammatical name given to such a construction?

Rich Ulrich

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Dec 7, 2022, 1:32:10 PM12/7/22
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I'll invent the term, "hanging sentence fragment" -- I don't
think it fits well with a semi-colon. Put a period, and the
sentence fragment does well on its own.

--
Rich Ulrich

Ken Blake

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Dec 7, 2022, 2:14:57 PM12/7/22
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On Wed, 07 Dec 2022 16:38:31 GMT, Pamela
<pamela.priv...@gmail.com> wrote:

As far as I'm concerned, there are two errors in punctuation there.

It should be

"Other races get ignored. Never mind that there are more Asians in
the world than blacks and whites put together, even when you exclude
the Chinese."

And better would be

"Other races get ignored. Never mind that even if you exclude
the Chinese, there are more Asians in the world than blacks and whites
put together ."

Bebercito

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Dec 7, 2022, 2:31:01 PM12/7/22
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Le mercredi 7 décembre 2022 à 17:38:47 UTC+1, Pamela a écrit :
> In the following text, I want to make clear that the count of Chinese is
> included (or excluded) from the count of Asians.
>
> "Other races get ignored, never mind that there are more Asians in
> the world than blacks and whites put together; even when you exclude
> the Chinese."
>
> Would it be more correct to use a comma above?

Yes, because what follows ("even when...") is a (concessive) subordinate
clause and as such should be introduced by a comma. However, that clause
modifies another (concessive) subordinate clause ("never mind that...") instead
of a main clause. IMO, the second comma could even be removed as the second
part of the sentence (from "never mind" to the end) semantically represents only
one adjunct to the main clause ("Other races get ignored"). Also, "though" could
be preferred to "never mind that":

"Other races get ignored, though there are more Asians in the world than blacks
and whites put together even when you exclude the Chinese."

> If so then what is the
> grammatical name given to such a construction?

The construction is regular, if awkward in this case.

occam

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Dec 7, 2022, 2:57:22 PM12/7/22
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On 07/12/2022 17:38, Pamela wrote:
> "Other races get ignored, never mind that there are more Asians in
> the world than blacks and whites put together; even when you exclude
> the Chinese."

Alternative:

"Other races get ignored, never mind that there are more Asians in
the world than blacks and whites put together. This is true even when
you exclude the Chinese."

Ken Blake

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Dec 7, 2022, 5:41:37 PM12/7/22
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On Wed, 7 Dec 2022 20:57:16 +0100, occam <oc...@nowhere.nix> wrote:

>On 07/12/2022 17:38, Pamela wrote:
>> "Other races get ignored, never mind that there are more Asians in
>> the world than blacks and whites put together; even when you exclude
>> the Chinese."
>
>Alternative:
>
>"Other races get ignored, never mind that there are more Asians in
>the world than blacks and whites put together.

That's a run-on sentence as far as I'm concerned.

If you don't want to make it two sentences, it could be

"Other races get ignored, even though there are more Asians in
the world than blacks and whites put together. "


"This is true even when
you exclude the Chinese."

I like that as a separate sentence.
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