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(m4.info)Quoting Arguments

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Quoting macro arguments
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   Each argument has leading unquoted whitespace removed.  Within each
argument, all unquoted parentheses must match.  For example, if FOO is
a macro,

     foo(() (`(') `(')

   is a macro call, with one argument, whose value is `() (() ('.

   It is common practice to quote all arguments to macros, unless you
are sure you want the arguments expanded.  Thus, in the above example
with the parentheses, the `right' way to do it is like this:

     foo(`() (() (')

   It is, however, in certain cases necessary to leave out quotes for
some arguments, and there is nothing wrong in doing it.  It just makes
life a bit harder, if you are not careful.