Picky point on semicolons

[Laurence Horn]

At 11:35 AM -0500 1/13/09, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>On Mon, Dec 29, 2008 at 5:59 PM, Arnold Zwicky <zwicky at stanford.edu> wrote:
>>
>>  On Dec 29, 2008, at 12:54 PM, Laurence Horn wrote:
>>  >
>>  > from the paper of record (NYT today, C11)
>>  >
>>  > Book review by Janet Maslin of Carol O'Connell's _Bone by Bone_:
>>  >
>>  > Dramatically "Bone by Bone" is defuse...It has no real central
>>  > character.
>>  >
>>  > [Since I assume both words are in the relevant dictionary, there's no
>>  > Cupertino effect to blame]
>>
>>  hmm.  the opposite substitution is already in the ecdb:
>>
>>    http://eggcorns.lascribe.net/english/33/diffuse/
>>
>>  the Maslin example looks like an ordinary mis-spelling to me, but i
>>  could be wrong.
>
>This was mentioned by NYT style guru Phil Corbett in his "After
>Deadline" column today, along with other spellchecker-proof typos:
>
>http://topics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/13/the-age-of-schadenfreude/
>
Interesting.  I also notice this particular item in Guru Corbett's
blog entry, just under the ones on the "defuse" novel and tbe "color
palate":
================
Helium not only warps vocal chords, it also deadens taste buds.

--Make it "vocal cords." (Also, we probably needed a semicolon or
dash instead of a comma. Or use "but" in place of "it.")
================
No problem with Corbett's chords-->cords correction, but I'm a bit
surprised at his other complaint.  Is there really a rule in style
manuals against

A not only B's, it C's.

(as in
She not only liked it, she loved it.
I not only saw the movie, I also read the book.
Not only did I see the movie, I (also) read the book.
etc.)?

Granted, a "but"--where possible (as in the movie/book
examples)--would obviate the question, but it also elevates the
register a bit.  In any case, I can't imagine (well, I can, but...)
the argument for preferring (a) to (b) below:

(a) Helium not only warps vocal cords; it also deadens taste buds.
(b) Helium not only warps vocal cords, it also deadens taste buds.

In (a), that would make "Helium not only warps vocal cords" a
complete sentence/thought, according to what I thought the standard
rules were for semicolon use.  But it really isn't; the continuation
is (virtually) necessary (even more so when the first clause is
inverted) and there are no run-on sentences involved here.  That
would seem to argue for a comma, which is in any case far more
frequent than a semicolon in this context.  (I've looked at more "not
only/(but) also/even" type constructions than I'd care to shake a
stick at.)  Where the semicolon is warranted is in e.g. (c) or (d)

(c) Helium warps vocal cords; it also affects your fundamental frequency.
(d) Helium only warps vocal cords; it doesn't make you sterile.

LH

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