VIETNAM AVIATION ACADEMY

FOREIGN LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT

Student: Trần Thị Thanh

Code: 2252210049 Class: 22ĐHNA01

Symbols commonly used in syntactic analysis

MAJOR: LINGUISTICS INTRODUCTION

Code: 0101000937

Lecturer: Nguyễn Kim Loan, PH.D

 VAA, 17 Oct 2023

Symbols commonly used in syntactic analysis

Mục lục:

1. Introduction
2. Round brackets
○ What is the round bracket?.....................................
○ Using round brackets…………………………………
○ Punctuation with round brackets……………………
○ More about the round brackets for additional
infỏmation………………………………………………
○ More about the round brackets for singular or plural
options…………………………………………..

3. Square brackets……………………………………………..
○ What is the square bracket?....................................
○ Using square brackets………………………………..

4. Curly brackets……………………………………………….
○ What is the curly bracket?.......................................
○ Using curly brackets………………………………….
5. Conclusion
1. Introduction:
Brackets are symbols that we use to contain "extra information", or information
that is not part of the main content. Brackets always come in pairs—an "opening"
bracket before the extra information, and a "closing" bracket after it. There are two
main types of bracket: round () and square []. British English and American
English define them differently, as you see below.

2. Round Brackets or Parentheses

British English
( ) = round brackets or brackets

American English
( ) = parentheses

Round brackets are basically used to add extra information to a sentence.

Using Round Brackets

Round brackets are used to insert additional information into a text

(usually an explanation or an afterthought). For example:

● John (the team captain) is 6 feet 4 inches tall.

 ● (Here, the bracketed text provides an explanation.)I love
cakes (provided they're not chocolate).

(Here, the bracketed text provides an afterthought.)Round brackets

are also used to show a plural option alongside a singular option. For
example:

● Remove the pin(s) from the leg.

(There might be one pin, but there could be more.)Round brackets are
also called "parentheses."

Round brackets are also used to show a plural option alongside a

singular option. For example:

● Remove the pin(s) from the leg.

(There might be one pin, but there could be more.)Round brackets are
also called "parentheses."

Punctuation with Round Brackets

When round brackets are used to insert information at the end of a

sentence, the end punctuation of the sentence is placed outside the
bracket. For example:

● The whole crew survived (even the dog).

When the additional information is a standalone sentence among
other sentences, then the whole thing including the end punctuation is
placed inside the parentheses. For example:

● The whole crew survived. (Even the dog survived.)

In a situation where the additional information is a standalone

sentence within another sentence, then the end punctuation is usually
omitted for readability. For example:

● The whole crew (The crew was four men and a dog)
survived.

(Note that there is no period (full stop) after "dog.")

More about Round Brackets for Additional
Information

Round brackets are used to insert additional information in text. If you

were to remove the brackets and the information inside, the text would
still work. For example:
 ● Set in the 17th century, The Three Musketeers ("Les
Trois Mousquetaires" in French) is a novel by Alexandre
Dumas.
● Although they are relatively common off Australia,
California, South Africa, and Mexico, great white sharks
usually inhabit coastal waters where the water
temperature ranges 12-24 degrees Celsius. They
generally hunt by detecting the electrical fields (They can
detect less than one billionth of a volt) emitted by the
movements of their prey.

More about Round Brackets for Singular or Plural

Options

For brevity, round brackets can be used to show that a word could be
either singular or plural. For example:

● Please write the name(s) of your guest(s) in the section

below.
● Ensure the rod(s) is(are) aligned with the top section.

Don't Overuse Round Brackets

Using lots of brackets in your writing is usually a sign of bad sentence
structure. Round brackets also look a little informal in business
correspondence. Luckily, the latter issue is easily solved. You do not
have to use brackets all the time. You have a choice between round
brackets, commas, and dashes. These are all types of parenthetical
punctuation. The information between a pairing of parenthetical
punctuation is called a parenthesis.
How Long Can Parenthesis Be?
Parenthesis is used to add additional information. Often, it is just a
few words, but it can be a complete sentence or even a few
sentences. (If it's any longer than that, you should probably reconsider
whether it's appropriate as a parenthesis.)

Periods (Full Stops) Inside or Outside the Brackets?

In most cases, the period will be outside the end bracket, but if your
parenthesis is a complete sentence, it should start with a capital letter
and end in a period, which would be inside the brackets.

● Ashley likes cakes (especially cream cakes).

● Ashley likes cakes. (He especially likes cream cakes.)

So, it just follows logic. If the information inside the brackets is part of
another sentence, treat it as such. If it's a sentence in its own right,
treat it as such; i.e., give it its own period inside the final bracket.

If the parenthesis is a complete sentence within another sentence,

you can omit the period for style reasons. Look at this example again:

● Great white sharks usually inhabit coastal waters where

the water temperature ranges 12-24 degrees Celsius.
They generally hunt by detecting the electrical fields
(They can detect less than one billionth of a volt) emitted
by the movements of their prey.

Here is another example:

● As the wine-growing season in France (We lived in

France during my twenties) draws to a close, the festivals
start
3. Square Brackets or Brackets

British English
[ ] = square brackets

American English
[ ] = brackets

We typically use square brackets when we want to modify another person's

words. Here, we want to make it clear that the modification has been made by us,
not by the original writer.

Uses of [ ]
● Square brackets are often used to insert explanatory material or to mark
where a [word or] passage was omitted from an original material by
someone other than the original author, or to mark modifications in
quotations. In transcribed interviews, sounds, responses and reactions that
are not words but that can be described are set off in square brackets — "...
[laughs] ...".
● When quoted material is in any way altered, the alterations are enclosed in
square brackets within the quotation to show that the quotation is not exactly
as given, or to add an annotation.
For example: The Plaintiff asserted his cause is just, stating,

[m]y cause is [sic] just.

● In the original quoted sentence, the word "my" was capitalized: it has been
modified in the quotation given and the change signaled with brackets.
Similarly, where the quotation contained a grammatical error (is/are), the
 quoting author signaled that the error was in the original with "[sic]" (Latin
for 'thus').

● A bracketed ellipsis, [...], is often used to indicate omitted material: "I'd like
to thank [several unimportant people] for their tolerance [...]". Bracketed
comments inserted into a quote indicate where the original has been
modified for clarity: "I appreciate it [the honor], but I must refuse", and "the
future of psionics [see definition] is in doubt". Or one can quote the original
statement "I hate to do laundry" with a (sometimes grammatical)
modification inserted: He "hate[s] to do laundry".

● A small letter can be replaced by a capital one, when the beginning of the
original printed text is being quoted in another piece of text or when the
original text has been omitted for succinctness— for example, when
referring to a verbose original: "To the extent that policymakers and elite
opinion in general have made use of economic analysis at all, they have, as
the saying goes, done so the way a drunkard uses a lamppost: for support,
not illumination", can be quoted succinctly as: "[P]olicymakers [...] have
made use of economic analysis [...] the way a drunkard uses a lamppost: for
support, not illumination." When nested parentheses are needed, brackets
are sometimes used as a substitute for the inner pair of parentheses within
the outer pair. When deeper levels of nesting are needed, convention is to
alternate between parentheses and brackets at each level.

● In linguistics, phonetic transcriptions are generally enclosed within square

brackets, whereas phonemic transcriptions typically use paired slashes,
according to International Phonetic Alphabet rules.

● In lexicography, square brackets usually surround the section of a dictionary

entry which contains the etymology of the word the entry defines.

4. Curly brace
What is a Curly Brace?
Known as a brace, curly brace, or curly bracket, the {} punctuation
marks are a true brace and the only punctuation mark to use brace in
any part of its name.

It is a rare mark and should never be used for formal writing unless it
is part of a math equation, music cord (also called an accolade),
computer programming, or for separating lists of equal items.

History of the Curly Brace

Curly braces were first used in the 1960s as part of the computer
programming language BCPL. It was used as the primary symbol to
block coded information together when writing a program.

Prior to its invention, brackets and parentheses were used, but these
quickly became confused due to the amount of information used in
writing lines of commands. Introducing a new punctuation mark
helped simplify and define different lines of data.

How to Use Curly Braces in Writing

As mentioned above, curly braces should only be used in informal

writing or computer programming, math, and music.Curly brackets are
rarely used in prose and have no widely accepted use in formal writing, but
may be used to mark words or sentences that should be taken as a group, to
avoid confusion when other types of brackets are already in use, or for a
special purpose specific to the publication (such as in a dictionary). More
commonly, they are used to indicate a group of lines that should be taken
together, such as in when referring to several lines of poetry that should be
repeated

5. Conclusion:

In British English, the term “parenthesis” refers to the use of any type of
paired punctuation, including square brackets [ ], curly braces { }, and angle
brackets < >, as well as round brackets.

In academic writing, it is important to be aware of the different terms used

for these types of paired punctuation marks, and to use them correctly
according to the guidelines of the relevant style guide. However, in general
usage, the terms “parenthesis” and “parentheses” are often used
interchangeably to refer to the curved marks ( ) that are commonly used in
writing.

References
”Brackets: British vs. American”. 6 November 2022. Archived from the
original on 14 April 2023. Retrieved 14 April 2023.
IPA Handbook p. 175.
IPA Handbook p. 191.
The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation. grammarbook.com.