Square brackets in Chinese

[roddy]

In English we use [square brackets] to add something not said by the original speaker, usually as the information is necessary to understanding. See here if you want to read up on this.

 

I can't see there's an equivalent in Chinese. Is there? Should there be? I've had a couple of things recently where there have been () brackets in a quote enclosing what looks very much like an editorial addition, but could theoretically be from the original author. 

[mouse]

2 hours ago, roddy said:

I've had a couple of things recently where there have been () brackets in a quote enclosing what looks very much like an editorial addition, but could theoretically be from the original author. 

 

My experience is a bit particular and scholarly, but in editions of excavated texts, the style is to put a 楷書 version of the Chu script, then the modern equivalent in normal brackets (see pic for example). As the bit in brackets is very much an editorial decision, it is the equivalent of square brackets in English.

 

 

[889]

I see that Pleco uses squarish but not quite square brackets, with flared ends:

 

顧〔顾〕

[Shelley]

Is this what you mean?

 

• 「」 『』 analogous to ‘’ and “” or french ‹› «»

• 【】 〖〗 〔〕 are analogous to () [] {}

• 〈〉 《》 are for book and other work's titles

 

Found that here https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/517/when-are-and-and-other-brackets-used

[重大雷雨]

I don't know if there is a Chinese equivalent.  I do, however use both the oxford comma and brackets/parenthesis in my Chinese writing.

 

I am a strong advocate for using more punctuation in Chinese, even if it is not common or accepted practice. 

 

 

[VocabSplitter]

On 3/13/2019 at 6:10 PM, Shelley said:

• 「」 『』 analogous to ‘’ and “” or french ‹› «»

• 【】 〖〗 〔〕 are analogous to () [] {}

• 〈〉 《》 are for book and other work's titles

I have seen those square brackets in Traditional Chinese, but not in Simplified Chinese. I know for sure that in Simplified Chinese,  () and《》are valid.  For other square brackets, they might be valid in Traditional Chinese?