Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Parenthesis

Definition:

pa·ren·the·sis [puh-ren-thuh-sis]
–noun,plural-ses

a qualifying, explanatory, or appositive word, phrase, clause, or sentence that interrupts a syntactic construction without otherwise affecting it, having often a characteristic intonation and indicated in writing by commas, parentheses, or dashes, as in William Smith—you must know him—is coming tonight.

Examples:
1. My umbrella (which is somewhat broken) can still shield the two of us from the rain.
2. Roger Worthington, a poorly drawn character in the novel, reveals the secret in the last chapter.
3. Some of the local store owners— Mr. Kwan and Ms. Lawson, for example—insisted that the street be widened.
4. “The sinews of war are five — men, money, materials, maintenance (food) and morale.” – Ernest Hemingway

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