Brackets go to the wall
Posted by Lewis on June 02, 2003
In Reply to: Brackets, parentheses posted by R. Berg on May 26, 2003
: : : : Here I often see references to a "bracketed phrase" appear in parentheses on my screen. Is that my font settings or your software or do many people use the terms brackets and parentheses differently?
: : : : Perhaps a test is indicated: brackets [], parentheses ().
: : : A parenthetical element in a sentence is enclosed by parentheses. They may be commas, dashes or some variety of bracket. In mathematics, square brackets have been named parentheses to distinguish them from curved brackets.
: : Now I've looked it up! This is from [Dead link removed - ed]
: : "Here are some examples of brackets: ( ) - parentheses, [ ]
- brackets or square brackets, { } - braces or curly brackets, -
angular brackets. Normally, the word "brackets" means square brackets
and not parentheses."
: : Living in England, I would understand "brackets" to be round ones.
: In the U.S., ( ) are conventionally called parentheses. Brackets are [ ]. { } are braces or curly braces.
I thought "parentheses" meant that the idea was subsidiary, however it was presented. I think "brackets" and "parentheses" are entirely interchangeable except in printing and mathematics. I just call them brackets/square brackets/squiggle brackets.
Brackets can also be L-shaped.