46788
First, I want to say that this is in no way to question the way somebody is
writing. I'm just curious.

I have noticed that some Japanese people here use parentheses and an equals
sign to clarify some word or to "define a variable".
[Example](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/46692/19206):

> ...very difficult to explain grammatically even to Japanese **（＝日本人）**.

I am pretty sure that most English speakers (or the part of the internet where
I've spent most of my time) don't use the equals sign, so I came to the
conclusion that this must be a Japanese thing.

Does this carry some other meaning than using plain parentheses in English?
Also, is this used in official texts or is it just an informal way to clarify
something?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-04-22T06:56:32.367
46767
2017-04-23T22:14:23.540
19206
question
orthography punctuation
Using parentheses (=round brackets) with equals sign
It appears that (=...) isn't only used in Japanese. In English, it is used a
lot in the same way as in the question's title, to clarify the meaning of
something when there can be multiple interpretations. Example from [Longman
Dictionary of Contemporary
English](http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/statement):

> make a statement (=say something, especially in public)

In Japanese, you can see it used in the same way as in English in [informal
contexts](http://rio2016.2ch.net/test/read.cgi/sci/1362140109):

> 「あの世（＝死後の世界）は無い」は、非科学的 ３

[And a bit more formally](http://www.ichikawa-bil.co.jp/_keiji/ketsugi.pdf):

> 窃盗(=万引)撲滅市川駅周辺店舗連絡協議会

However, I did not find English usage of (=...) like
[here](http://www.lib.iwate-med.ac.jp/mm/mm8.pdf):

> インパクトファクター(=IF)の概要、誤用に続き、今号ではIFとその他の引用指標の活用法についてご説明します。

(This is not typical use according to a native Japanese speaker, see comments)

The way English scientific papers or similar documents usually define
abbreviations is with plain parentheses:

[![moving stations \(STAs\) →　...aspects of STA
mobility](https://i.stack.imgur.com/OT5yU.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/OT5yU.png)

So, (=...) might be used a bit differently in English and Japanese but they
seem to mean mostly the same. (...) and (=...) have a similar meaning, but
(=...) is not as flexible as (...) in either language.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-04-23T02:09:40.397
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2017-04-23T22:14:23.540
2017-04-23T22:14:23.540
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answer