I’m still confused as to why the semicolon would be necessary in the aforequoted examples.

Isn’t ‘When I finish here, I will be glad to help you, and that is a promise I will keep’ perfectly understandable too? Isn’t its meaning with a comma exactly the same as with a semicolon?

Thank you.

In this case, ‘respectively’ is essential (no comma) as it denotes ‘in the order already mentioned’, with 18 being the monthly sewer projection and 200 being the yearly counterpart. Without ‘respectively’, it would be unclear which projection each figure refers to or if the monthly and yearly projections both are 18 and 200.

http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/respectively

I think the example is incorrect. The word ‘respectively’ is essential to the sentence’s meaning and shouldn’t be separated by a comma.

Isn’t the word ‘feminism’ itself gender-biased? If it isn’t, then neither is ‘masculinism’. That’s why I say ‘gender equality’ instead, though I wish there were a single word to denote ‘gender equality’.

I disagree with the ‘black’-to-‘African-American’ usage, though. African-Americans (descendants of the transatlantic slaves) are black; but black Americans aren't necessarily African-American. For instance, Barack Obama is a black (half to be specific) American but not African-American since he isn't descended from the United States' slaves.

I guess so ... .

The z vs s rules aren't the same. The -ize rule might be, but the -yze endings of American English, for example, are always spelled -yse in Oxford spelling.

I disagree with Oxford spelling's -ize being an Americanism (because it isn't). Oxford spelling has -ise endings for some words that end with -ize in American English. For instance, 'advertise' is spelled with -ise in Oxford spelling, which is 'advertize' in American spelling. Also, I think the original -ize Oxford spelling better preserves the language's identity than using the rather recent -ise Frenchism in words.

To clarify, Oxford spelling is British English - just without the much later -ise Frenchism when -ize should be used. That said, I still don't know exactly which words should end with -ise vs -ize in Oxford spelling.

I'm looking for a word that denotes/means bad taste.