Angled brackets are used:
- For indicating that the enclosed form is an orthographic representation rather than a phonetic one, as, for example, in a statement such as: <ng> may represent either /ŋ/ or /ŋɡ/ in English.
- To enclose parts of a phonological rule with the convention that all parts so enclosed must be present in the rule or all such parts must be absent. For example the fictitious rule below deletes a consonant at the end of a word when preceded by a consonant, but if the word is a noun (the <N> part) then the consonant is deleted only if the preceding consonant is an obstruent (the <[-son]> part).