Joshua Hinson, director of the language revitalization program of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma, helped produce the world's first Indigenous-langua...

Let's begin by understanding the meaning of this sentence. We'll use our understanding of pause points and segment the sentence as shown - understanding and assimilating the meaning of each segment bit by bit!

Sentence Structure

• Joshua Hinson,
• director of the language revitalization program
• of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma,
• helped produce the world's first Indigenous-language instructional app,
• Chickasaw Basic [?] in 2009 [?] an online television network [?] Chickasaw TV,
• in 2010;
• and a Rosetta Stone language course in Chickasaw,
• in 2015.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start from the beginning:

Joshua Hinson (who is the director of the language revitalization program of the Chickasaw Nation in Oklahoma) helped produce the world's first Indigenous-language instructional app.

Now the sentence continues to tell us what this app is, or rather what things he helped produce: "Chickasaw..."

This is where we have the blank. Let's look at the choices:

• They're asking us to decide between semicolons and commas
• Specifically: what punctuation goes after "Basic" and after "2009" and after "network"

To see what works here, let's read the rest of the sentence and understand what it's saying!

The sentence continues: "Chickasaw [Basic/timing info] [something about] an online television network, Chickasaw TV, in 2010; and a Rosetta Stone language course in Chickasaw, in 2015."

Now let's understand what this is telling us:

• This is listing THREE separate things Joshua Hinson helped produce:
  1. "Chickasaw Basic, in 2009"
     • The name of the app with when it was created
  2. "An online television network, Chickasaw TV, in 2010"
     • A television network, which is named "Chickasaw TV," created in 2010
  3. "A Rosetta Stone language course in Chickasaw, in 2015"
     • A language course created in 2015

So we have a list of three achievements, each with its own timing details.

What do we notice about the structure here?

• Each item in this list contains its own commas within it:
  • "Chickasaw Basic, in 2009" - has a comma
  • "an online television network, Chickasaw TV, in 2010" - has commas
  • "a Rosetta Stone language course in Chickasaw, in 2015" - has a comma
• When you have a list where the items themselves contain commas, you need SEMICOLONS to separate the major items
  • This helps readers distinguish between commas that are part of an item's description and commas that separate different items

So we need: "Basic, in 2009; an online television network,"

The correct answer is Choice C.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Using Semicolons in Complex Lists

When you're writing a list of items and those items themselves contain commas, you need to use semicolons to separate the major items in the list. This prevents confusion about which commas are doing which job - are they separating list items, or are they internal to each item?

Simple list (no internal commas):

• "The team included Maya, the captain; José, the goalkeeper; and Lin, the striker."
  • Wait, this still uses semicolons! Let me reconsider.

Actually, let me show it this way:

Simple list:

• "He studied French, Spanish, and Italian."
  • Items: French | Spanish | Italian
  • Just commas work fine because items are simple

Complex list (items contain commas):

• "He visited Paris, France; Madrid, Spain; and Rome, Italy."
  • Items: Paris, France | Madrid, Spain | Rome, Italy
  • Each item has a comma within it (city, country)
  • Semicolons separate the major items

In this question:

• "Chickasaw Basic, in 2009; an online television network, Chickasaw TV, in 2010; and a Rosetta Stone language course in Chickasaw, in 2015."
  • Item 1: Chickasaw Basic, in 2009
  • Item 2: an online television network, Chickasaw TV, in 2010
  • Item 3: a Rosetta Stone language course in Chickasaw, in 2015
  • Each item contains commas for internal details (timing, naming)
  • Semicolons clearly separate where one achievement ends and the next begins