English punctuation question...

[progdonkey]

My sister and I were just watching the "Census" episode of West Wing, specifically the scene where Bartlett challenges the staff to name the fourteen punctuation marks.

After that I asked my sister (Fulbright scholar and Neuroscience doctoral candidate) what these are called: "{ }" She said that they are ellipses and kept telling me that I was wrong when I said that the "dot-dot-dots" where ellipses.

I looked online, and of course I was right. So, in true sibling rivalry fashion, she'll admit that the "dot-dot-dot" is an ellipsis but so is the pointed bracket!

Could any of our resident English teachers please tell me what the "pointed brackets" are actually called (if not just that)?

[WestHoustonDem]

1. In geek speak they're curly braces

[Columbia]

2. Curly brackets or braces

[Dookus]

3. well

the 14 standard English punctuation marks are:


period, comma, question mark, exclamation mark, colon, semicolon, hyphen, dash, parentheses, brackets, ellipsis, apostrophe, quotation marks and slash

the ones you showed are curly braces or brackets, probably just a subset of regular brackets ([])

http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/marks/marks.htm

[izzie]

7. I am glad this has come up .

--

[intheflow]

4. I think it's a math thing.

Maybe they're mathematical brackets?
Or, as on a website I found, it's used in an equation called a dollar bracket. http://getpot.sourceforge.net/node24.html

[niki]

5. i believe { is callled a 'brace' -

[ochazuke]

6. They are braces

brackets are like this [these]

No way is it an ellipsis.

[progdonkey]

8. thanks everyone! n/t

[lukasahero]

9. "Hitchcocks" is what I call them

Once people figure out why, they never forget... :)