Names for brackets (was: Extension of Tourette's)

[Scot LaFaive]

I concur with Dennis. (Perhaps because we are both in the Midwest? Perhaps.)

Scot

On Mon, Apr 7, 2008 at 8:24 AM, Dennis Preston <preston at msu.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Dennis Preston <preston at MSU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: Names for brackets (was: Extension of Tourette's)
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Wilson,
>
> Except for the Hungarian part, I am an old American feller, and I
> will have to say that my system is not like Damien's but not like
> yours either:
>
> () parentheses
> [] brackets (but "square brackets" in phonology)
> {} curly brackets (never braces)
>
> "Braces" are for trousers, teeth, walls, etc...
>
> dInIs
>
>
>
> >---------------------- Information from the mail header
> >-----------------------
> >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >Poster:       Damien Hall <halldj at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> >Subject:      Names for brackets (was: Extension of Tourette's)
> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >
> >Wilson said:
> >
> >>  As far back as the early 'Seventies, I heard (post)graduate students
> >>  refer to braces as "curly brackets." At that time, I feared for the
> >>  future of the English language. A great weight has been lifted from my
> >>  shoulders.
> >
> >Sorry, Wilson, if it causes you to start losing sleep again after a mere night
> >of respite, but your e-mail was the first indication to me that this wasn't a
> >straightforward across-the-pond lexical difference!  Of course, I should know
> >by now that things are never as straightforward as they seem in language.
> >Anyway, as I say, up to now I'd thought that the fact that I referred to all
> >kinds of brackets differently to all Americans whom I'd heard
> >referring to them
> >meant that it was just a thing between the US and the UK.  My system, which I
> >maintain stoutly, is:
> >
> >()   me / UK: 'brackets';         US: 'parentheses'
> >[]   me / UK: 'square brackets';  US: 'brackets'
> >{}   me / UK: 'curly brackets';   US: 'braces'
> >
> >To unify the set, I also most often call <> 'angle brackets', and I have even
> >been known to call // 'slash brackets' (when these two last enclose stretches
> >of characters, of course).  But, to be fair, I don't know whether these
> >represent general UK usage, simply me, or US and UK usage.
> >
> >Damien Hall
> >University of Pennsylvania
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------
> >The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
> --
> Dennis R. Preston
> University Distinguished Professor
> Department of English
> Morrill Hall 15-C
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48864 USA
>
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