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In English writing, quotation marks or inverted commas, also known informally as quotes or speech marks〔Barber, 2004.〕 or as quote marks, quotemarks or speechmarks, are punctuation marks placed on either side of a word or phrase in order to identify it as a quotation, direct speech or a literal title or name. They are also used to indicate that the meaning of the word or phrase they surround should be taken to be different from (or, at least, a modification of) that typically associated with it (e.g. in the sentence ''the elite, composed by people of mixed ancestry, embraced their "whiteness"'' – the quotation marks modify the word ''whiteness'' to pertain to European culture rather than the color white); in this way, they are often used to express irony. They also sometimes appear to be used as a means of adding emphasis, although this usage is usually considered incorrect.〔English Department, 1999.〕 Quotation marks are written as a pair of opening and closing marks in either of two styles: or . Opening and closing quotation marks may be identical in form (called neutral, vertical, straight, typewriter, or "dumb" quotation marks), or may be distinctly left-handed and right-handed (typographic or, colloquially, curly quotation marks); see quotation mark glyphs for details. Typographic quotation marks are usually used in manuscript and typeset text. Because typewriter and computer keyboards lack keys to directly enter typographic quotation marks, much typed writing has neutral quotation marks. The "smart quotes" feature in some computer software can convert neutral quotation marks to typographic ones, but sometimes imperfectly. The closing single quotation mark is identical or similar in form to the apostrophe and similar to the prime symbol. However, these three characters have quite different purposes. The double quotation mark is similar to—and often used to represent—the ditto mark and the double prime symbol. == History == In the first centuries of typesetting, quotations were distinguished merely by indicating the speaker, and this can still be seen in some editions of the Christian Bible. During the Renaissance, quotations were distinguished by setting in a typeface contrasting with the main body text (often italic type with roman, or the other way around). Long quotations were also set this way, at full size and full measure.〔Bringhurst (2002), p 86.〕 Quotation marks were first cut in metal type during the middle of the sixteenth century, and were used copiously by some printers by the seventeenth. In some Baroque and Romantic-period books, they would be repeated at the beginning of every line of a long quotation. When this practice was abandoned, the empty margin remained, leaving the modern form of indented block quotation.〔 In Early Modern English, quotation marks were used to denote pithy comments. They were used to quote direct speech as early as the late sixteenth century, and this practice became more common over time.〔Higgins, John. ''Mirror for Magistrates'', 1587, fol. 2v. Truss, Lynne. ''Eats, Shoots & Leaves'', 2003. p. 151. ISBN 1-59240-087-6.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Quotation marks in English」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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