English grammer

[Carol Anne]

Can anyone tell me why the word 'fear' is bracketed in this newspaper paragraph?

Mr. McM. said: 'It's one thing after another. Our members in the drinks industry and the retail sector are very, very concerned about minimum pricing. They (fear) it will damage our drinks industry.'

[anniebird]

It normally happens when the word is inserted to make the sentance understandable but was not actually spoken by the person being quoted. In the case I am not sure what Mr McM would have said that had been altered.

[mollykins]

maybe it was a local dialect word, meaning fear that people from other parts of the country wouldn't understand.

[mollykins]

but spelling and grammar different so we'll let you off.

[Carol Anne]

Thank-you everyone.

[heathfield]

Sometimes such brackets are used to show that the enclosed word has been used as a meaningful substitute to condense some lengthier utterance given by the speaker. e.g. 'filled with trepidation at the prospect that' = (fear).

[jno]

actually, the normal thing in this sort of case would be to use [square brackets]. If you quote a sentence from a book, for instance, and it has (round brackets) in it, it means they were in the original sentence in the book. If you use square brackets it's to show readers that you put them there.