Reply #6: Actually, you are only partly right.

[tblue37]

Both “proved" and “proven” are acceptable past participles for "prove." "Proven” is the older form. “Prove” is an irregular verb, but some irregular verbs have moved in the direction of regularizing their past tense and past participle by adding a dental suffix (usually the -ed, although sometimes it is a -t, or it is dropped altogether if the verb stem already ends with a dental sound). For a time both forms will be used, but eventually the regularized form is likely to win out.

British and American English sometimes prefer different forms. For example, an English friend of mine once told me that when Americans use “gotten” rather than “got” as the past participle for “get,” we sound childish to her, yet “gotten” is actually the preferred form in America.

You are correct about the semicolon, though. I help my students to understand the use of the semicolon by telling them to treat it as a weak period, not as a strong comma. There are a few cases where it can be used as if it were a strong comma, but those are rare. In almost all cases, it should be treated as an end-stop. I have an article on my Grammar and Usage for the Non-Expert site explaining how to use colons and semicolons:

“Colons, and Semicolons, and Bears!”
http://www.grammartips.homestead.com/colons.html

On the other hand, I can’t help wondering why on earth you would attack Lynn on a point of grammar when it is so irrelevant to the subject of her post!