Saturday, March 8, 2008

so-called

so-called: mal llamado

As in, the so-called Justice and Peace law in Colombia, es decir, el mal llamado ley de Justicia y Paz. More and more Colombian human rights activists are insisting on just calling it Law 975, since even saying "mal llamado" you still end up associating it with justice and peace.

But there is all sorts of brave work being done for real peace here. There was a truly inspiring march in Bogota (and others around the world) on March 6th called by the Movimiento de victimas de crimenes de estado. I went a little crazy taking pics. Here is one of my faves.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

The much more common and less tendentious expression is simply "llamado/a":

"La llamada Ley de Justicia y Paz".

This still casts doubt on the appropriateness of the name; otherwise it would be "The Ley de Justicia y Paz", así nomás.

Sara Koopman said...

I disagree - this would be just "called" in English - and I think it carries a very different energy and connotation cuando dicen simplemente llamado a cuando dicen "mal llamado"

Anonymous said...

Oxford Spanish Dictionary:

el llamado `boom' de los sesenta the so-called `boom' of the sixties

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American heritage Spanish Dictionary so-called

adj.

llamado, supuesto


----------------
Maria Moliner:


Así llamado. Expresión muy frecuente: ‘Así llamado del nombre de su descubridor’. A veces, implica que el nombre de que se trata está aplicado con impropiedad. Þ *Falso.


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so-called / "s@U"kO:ld / adj (usu before n)
a (commonly named) (así) llamado or denominado
b (indicating skeptical attitude) ‹ expert / do-gooder › supuesto, presunto; this so-called



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Harper-Collins

Así llamado


Samples:

... En la llamada Ronda Uruguay la cual comenzó en 1982 y finalizó en 1994, se trató el Comercio Internacional de Servicios como un nuevo tema, existiendo al ...
http://www.revistaespacios.com/a95v16n02/30951602.html

... Sin embargo, los países en vías de desarrollo todavía reclaman la implementación de asuntos acordados en la llamada ronda Uruguay, desarrollada en ese ...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/spanish/business/ newsid_1646000/1646675.stm



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EUDICT

http://www.eudict.com/index.php?lang=engspa&word=so-called

so-called así llamado

Sara Koopman said...

hmm. this is another example of how dictionaries often don't speak to a social justice context. that may be what American Heritage says, but if you really consider the last two samples given of online usage - wouldn't they sound weird in English with "so-callled"? because they're not really questioning calling it the ronda Uruguay, they're just saying that it's called that. so again, I think that just using llamado has a different connotation that saying mal llamado.

Raul said...

I'm going to have to concur that "mal llamado" is "so-called". I'm a native Speaker (Mexican spanish) and that's the context in which it's used. Perfect translation Sara.

Anonymous said...

Pero se trata también de la primera ocasión en que el llamado 'imperio del centro' es sometido a tal grado de escrutinio exterior y, a cinco meses de los juegos, los problemas han comenzado a surgir. Los activistas de derechos humanos han visto una oportunidad única para protestar contra el régimen comunista y presionar reformas. Las críticas no se limitan a temas como la libertad de expresión o el respeto a las minorías, sino que abarcan también la política exterior de Beijing.
SEMANA.COM 20.03.08

Sara Koopman said...

again, different use. this would NOT be SO-called in English, as they are not implying that this is a misleading or wrongheaded way of calling it, but simply saying that some people call it that.

Anonymous said...

what do you think of using "so-called" for "tal llamado" and "poorly called" for "mal llamado"?

Anonymous said...

what do you think of using "so-called" for "tal llamado" and "poorly called" for "mal llamado"?

Sara Koopman said...

well, what I hear people saying is mal llamado, not tal llamado. mal llamado has dramatically higher googlage - and when you google tal llamado none of the hits in the first few pages fit this usage, so I doubt that it's widely used to mean this.

Anonymous said...

you could say "la mal llamada Ley de J y P" (it's feminine by the way) or "la llamada" both can translate as "so-called", it's a matter of nuance

i.e. "so-called" in English can be used to distance yourself from terminology without saying it's bad, or it can be used more strongly to really disagree with the terminology being used

so I think which you'd use would depend upon the context

hope that helps

Sara Koopman said...

just read another version, by Elena Tjandra: "rural district". Hmm.