Information AboutBrackets |
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IN WRITING Brackets are Punctuation marks, used in pairs to set apart or interject text within other text. Types of brackets include '''parentheses''' or '''round brackets''' ( ) (the singular is ''parenthesis''), '''box brackets or square brackets''' {Link without Title} , '''curly brackets or braces''' { }, and '''angle brackets''' . All these forms may be used according to Typographical conventions that may vary from publication to publication and may vary even more from language to language. Some typical uses in English texts follow. Types of brackets Parentheses ( ) Parentheses are used to contain parenthetical (or optional, additional) material in a sentence that could be removed without destroying the meaning of the main text. For example, "George Washington (a rich slaver) was not the wooden figure with wooden teeth that many think him". Indeed, such an interjection is called a '' Parenthesis '', and may also be set off with Dash es or Comma s. Overuse of parentheses is usually a sign of a badly structured text. Parentheses may be used to add supplementary information, such as "Sen. Kennedy (D., Massachusetts) spoke at length". Historically, parentheses have been used in place of where the Solidus is modernly used—that is, in order to depict alternatives, such as "parenthesis)(parentheses". Examples of this usage can be seen in editions of Fowler’s . Parentheses may also be nested (with one set inside another set (this is not commonly used in formal writing)). Sometimes square brackets will be used for the inner set of parentheses (in other words, a ''secondary'' phrase in parentheses example, this one ). Parenthesis and parenthetical phrases have been used extensively in stream of consciousness literature. Of particular note is the great southern American author William Faulkner , whose use of parenthetical constructions was legendary, effective, and (at times) frustrating. See Absalom, Absalom and the Quentin section of The Sound And The Fury for the best known examples. Any punctuation inside parentheses or other brackets is independent from the rest of the text: "Mrs. Pennyfarthing (What? Yes, that was her name!) was my landlady". In Mathematics , parentheses are used to signify a different precedence of operators. For example, 2 + 3 × 4 would be 14, since the multiplication is done before the addition. (2 + 3) × 4 is 20, because the parentheses override normal precedence, causing the addition to be done first. They are also used to set apart the Argument s to mathematical Function s. For example, ''f''(x) is the function ''f'' applied to the Variable x. In the Coordinate System , parentheses are used to denote a set of coordinates. For example, (4,7) may represent the point located at 4 on the x-axis and 7 on the y-axis. Parentheses are sometimes called '''round brackets''', '''curved brackets''' or, colloquially, '''parens''', or '''fingernails'''. John Lennard (in "The exploitation of parentheses in English printed verse") usefully coined the term '''''lunula''''' to refer specifically to the opening curved bracket, the closing curved bracket and the textual contents between. In American English, parentheses are usually considered separately from other brackets, and calling them "brackets" is unusual, even though they serve a similar function. Box brackets or square brackets Square brackets are used to enclose explanatory or missing material, especially in quoted text. For example, "I appreciate it [the honor , but I must refuse". Or, "the future of Psionics definition is in doubt". The bracketed expression Sic (Latin for "thus") is used to indicate errors that are "thus in the original"; a bracketed Ellipsis is used to indicate deleted material; bracketed comments are used to indicate when original text has been modified for clarity: "I'd like to thank [several unimportant people and my parentals for their love, tolerance [... and ''assistance'' added ". Square brackets are also sometimes used as parentheses within parentheses (secondary parentheses mentioned earlier ). With the International Phonetic Alphabet , square brackets are used to indicate a Phonetic transcription (as opposed to a Phonemic one). In Chemistry , square brackets can also be used to represent the Concentration of a Chemical Substance , or to denote a Complex Ion . In Proofreading, square brackets (called ''move-left symbols'' or ''move right symbols'') are added to the sides of text to indicate changes in indentation: Curly brackets or braces { } Curly brackets (so-called in British English; North American English prefers ''braces'') are sometimes used in prose to indicate a series of equal choices: "Select your animal {goat, sheep, cow, horse} and follow me". They are used in specialized ways in poetry and music (to mark repeats or joined lines). In Mathematics they are used to delimit Set s. Presumably due to the similarity of the words ''brace'' and ''bracket'' (they share an Etymology ), many people casually treat ''brace'' as a Synonym for ''bracket''. Therefore, when it is necessary to avoid any possibility of confusion, such as in computer programming, it may be best to use the term ''curly bracket'' rather than ''brace''. However, general usage in North American English favors the latter form. The term ''curly braces'' is redundant since no other type of brace exists. Indian programmers often use the name "flower bracket". In Computer Programming , curly brackets sometimes denote the beginning and ending of a sequence of statements or define a scope. Angle brackets or chevrons Angle brackets () are often used to enclose highlighted material. Some dictionaries use angle brackets to enclose short excerpts illustrating the usage of words. True angle brackets are not available on a typical computer keyboard, so the "less than" and "greater than" symbols are used instead (<, >). These are often loosely referred to as ''angle brackets'' when used in this way. For example, the symbols < and > are often used to set apart URL s in text, such as "I found it on Example.com Angle brackets are used in mathematics and Logic to delimit Ordered N-tuples . They are used in physical sciences to denote an average over time or another continuous parameter. For example, : In Linguistics , angle brackets are used to indicate Orthography , as in "The English word is spelled ." In Textual Criticism , and hence in many editions of poorly transmitted works, angle brackets denote sections of the text which are illegible or otherwise lost; the editor will often insert their own reconstruction where possible within the brackets. Single and double angle brackets () or pairs of the appropriate comparison operators (<<, >>) are sometimes used instead of Guillemets when the proper Glyph s are not available. The mathematical or logical symbols for greater-than (>) and less-than (<), when used as such, are not punctuation marks. Chevrons are part of standard , and and or and for Horizontal printing. In Comic Book s, angle brackets are often used to mark dialogue that has notionally been translated from another language. IN COMPUTING
Also, in many Computer Language s:
Layout rules In normal text an opening bracket is not put at the end of a line, and a closing bracket not at the beginning. However, in computer code this is often done to aid readability. For example, a bracketed list of items separated by semi-colons may be written with the brackets on separate lines, and the items, followed by the semicolon, each on one line. For example, the CSS code: H1 { font-weight: bold; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 14pt } may also be written: H1 { font-weight: bold; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 14pt } A superfluous semicolon may be added after the last item for uniformity of the item lines. See: Indent Style IN MATHEMATICS In addition to the use of Parentheses to specify the Order Of Operations , both parentheses and square brackets can also be used to denote an Interval . The notation The endpoint adjoining the square bracket is known as ''closed'', while the endpoint adjoining the parenthesis is known as ''open''. If both types of brackets are the same, the entire interval may be referred to as ''closed'' or ''open'' as appropriate. Whenever Infinity or negative infinity is used as an endpoint, it is always considered ''open'' and adjoined to a parenthesis. This is used in Mathematical Notation , and appears in some computer programming languages. See the article Interval (mathematics) for a more complete treatment of the subject. |