“A semicolon and a period are pretty much interchangeable.”
Nope.
A comma is a pause in thought that signals a change, or maybe an addition, about to be added to the thought just expressed.
A semi-colon calls for a longer pause; it means there’s a bigger change or addition coming; it navigates a slightly a more complicated thought.
A period signals the end of a thought. It’s a clear signal that there’s both a new sentence and a new thought coming.
{Each of the above sentences is both an explantation and illustration of correct semi-colon, comma, and period usage.)
In some uses of the semicolon, that's correct. The two phrases could be two separate sentences. I could have written just as properly: In some uses of the semicolon, that's correct; the two phrases could be two separate sentences.
However, the semicolon can also be used to separate items in a list. Here is the text of the First Amendment:
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
Here, the semicolon is used to distinguish between the various elements of the list that “Congress shall make no law respecting...” A reason for using the semicolon is that several of the elements comprising the list contain commas, and they aren't meant to denote the beginning of a new item on the list, but rather are used to manage the grammar within the particular element.
Certainly, from a strictly grammatical perspective, each item is equally the object of the phrase, “Congress shall make no law respecting...” Thus, if the Supreme Court ruled that corporations, as legal persons, enjoy the First Amendment-recognized right to free speech, it is altogether plain that the text of the amendment treats the rights of such legal persons as having a right to the free exercise of religion.
At least, from the perspective of the grammatical meaning.
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