Why does Word not like this?

[BetterThanAliens]

I take Microsoft Word's advice with a grain of salt, but this one confused me:

The nouns and verbs are the main content words in this poem and without emphasis on them, this poem has little to no meaning.


I placed a comma after them (appropriate or not?) but Word wants me to place a semicolon there. Really? Are we both wrong? Shed some light...

[Falsafa]

I always believed that Word gives us generic comments and not absolute truth. It is up to the "human editor" to make the choice. The comma looks fine to me.

[DanielScocco]

The comma looks right to me as well, while the semicolon would look wrong.

[Lurial]

Hi I'm new! now that thats out of my system...

the reason why the sentence "The nouns and verbs are the main content words in this poem and without emphasis on them, this poem has little to no meaning." requires a semi-colon is because your could replace the comma with a period and have two complete sentences. the semi-colon joins these two sentences.

either of these would be correct:

1.) The nouns and verbs are the main content words in this poem and without emphasis on them. This poem has little to no meaning.

2.) The nouns and verbs are the main content words in this poem and without emphasis on them; this poem has little to no meaning.


though the sentence seems awkward to me, try something like:
* The nouns and verbs are the main content of this poem. Without emphasis on them, this poem has little meaning.

[Maeve]

either of these would be correct:

1.) The nouns and verbs are the main content words in this poem and without emphasis on them. This poem has little to no meaning.

2.) The nouns and verbs are the main content words in this poem and without emphasis on them; this poem has little to no meaning.


First I have to cmment on the expression "little to no meaning." The idiom is "little or no meaning."

Second, the original long sentence (which, btw, is perfectly clear as it stands) can be divided into two sentences, but not as Lurial suggests.

Either

The nouns and verbs are the main content words in this poem. Without emphasis on them, this poem has little or no meaning.

Or

The nouns and verbs are the main content words in this poem; without emphasis on them, this poem has little or no meaning.