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I love this nongrammatical/idiomatic use of parentheses actually. Language is a tool, and its rules can be just as powerful when violated as when upheld. In th
by adamesque 2y ago
I love this nongrammatical/idiomatic use of parentheses actually. Language is a tool, and its rules can be just as powerful when violated as when upheld.
In this case they convey a subtext you can’t get as gracefully by being a slave to syntax— that the author hoped the post would be about how they did achieve success, but that didn’t happen, forcing the parenthetical qualifier. I don’t think another treatment would express that quite as well; you can almost feel the wince.
- laborcontract 2y agoyou’d normally use square braces [for this kind of thing]
- sdwr 2y agoSquare braces are used to show you are editing a quote for grammar or brevity, not to change the meaning of your own sentence. Ex: > I love this [...] use of parentheses. [Rules] can be just as powerful when violated as when upheld.
- laborcontract 2y agoyou can also use it in place of commas.