Marking figurative meaning of word


In English figurative meaning of word usually marked with quotation marks like
this:

> The motherboard is sometimes considered the "brain" of a computer.

I know that in Japanese quotation marks usually used for emphasis. But do they
also used to mark figurative meaning or some other method is used?




Yes, Japanese quotation marks (`「」`) can be used to enclose non-literal or
figurative expressions.

> マザーボードはしばしばコンピュータの「頭脳」と見なされる。

Double corner brackets (`『』`) and Western-style double-quotes (`“ ”`)are also
commonly used for this purpose. [This
article](https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/05/quotation-marks-
japanese.html) seems good.

But please don't think take this as a hard rule. As a matter of fact, Japanese
people use brackets fairly loosely. Quotation marks are not strongly
associated with sarcasm, either. See the following questions.

  * [「」 don't seem to be 'quotation marks' in news article titles, what do they mean?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/29341/5010)
  * [Do Japanese people use quotation marks for emphasis?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/21274/5010)

(By the way, the "brain" of a PC is usually a CPU, isn't it?)




Yes, Japanese quotation marks (`「」`) can be used to enclose non-literal or
figurative expressions.

> マザーボードはしばしばコンピュータの「頭脳」と見なされる。

Double corner brackets (`『』`) and Western-style double-quotes (`“ ”`)are also
commonly used for this purpose. [This
article](https://www.japanesewithanime.com/2017/05/quotation-marks-
japanese.html) seems good.

But please don't think take this as a hard rule. As a matter of fact, Japanese
people use brackets fairly loosely. Quotation marks are not strongly
associated with sarcasm, either. See the following questions.

  * [「」 don't seem to be 'quotation marks' in news article titles, what do they mean?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/29341/5010)
  * [Do Japanese people use quotation marks for emphasis?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/21274/5010)

(By the way, the "brain" of a PC is usually a CPU, isn't it?)

