CHAPTER III
MODIFIED PARENTHESIS, EXPLANATORY AND RESTRICTIVE TERMS, AFTER-THOUGHT, AND APPOSITIVES
EXPLANATORY AND RESTRICTIVE MODIFIERS
The Greek grammarians gave the name parenthesis to a group of words “thrust into” language, either spoken or written, when such words have no grammatical connection with the language. We retain the word “parenthesis” to describe such a group, and also as the name of the curved lines with which the group is enclosed and thus identified. These lines are called parenthesis, marks of parenthesis, or parentheses.
Such matter is inserted for explanation or qualification; but it is not essential to the meaning of the language into which it is thrust, for matter essential to the meaning would not be so named or so marked.
The parenthesis did the ancient writers a larger service in the involved style of their composition than it does modern writers; however, in a modified form, it does the modern writer a very useful and, at times, an indispensable service.
What we may call a modified parenthesis (modified parenthetical matter) is found, one or more times, in almost every paragraph.
In order to clarify or explain our adopted term, “modified parenthesis,” a parenthesis, enclosed in parentheses, was used in the sentence preceding this one; and, in the same sentence, in order to qualify, in a somewhat peculiar manner, the expression “is found in every paragraph,” the modified parenthetical group of words “one or more times” was inserted. We characterize this parenthesis as somewhat peculiar. In its literal meaning, “one or more times” adds nothing to the statement in which it appears, for whatever occurs must occur “one or more times.” It does, however, add a new and perhaps subtle thought as to the frequency of the occurrence of the parenthesis.
The meanings of these terms, together with the reasons for their punctuation, will appear as we discuss illustrative examples:
11. The author says (page 5) that he did not go to London.