FVA Not for points Deutsch > Englisch Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften Linguistik German use of parentheses (round brackets)

I show a made-up example to illustrate a use of parentheses (round brackets) by German writers, which at first confused me until I worked out its function. The writer uses parentheses as a sort of shorthand "or", to make the sentence cover two cases simultaneously, while avoiding repetition of the core term. In this example both legality and illegality could be covered in a single phrase. The leading part in parentheses can be a prefix that alters the meaning, or an adjective or adverb. It is quite different from the more familiar use of parentheses to enclose an aside or some additional secondary information. So far as I know, it is specific to German writers, especially scientists. How and when did it come into use? Has it been carried over from a mathematical notation? Is it used in other languages? - I haven't seen it in English. Any explanations or comments, especially from German speakers, please?