Thursday, June 22, 2017

Can we use the phrase "so-called" in its positive sense (or neutral) when refereeing to a widely adopted thing?


Let's consider the context below:



  • we have an "old technique" which is widely adopted by several researchers. now, you propose a new one.


you might say:




We propose a new technique under which fault analysis becomes more tractable than the so called "old technique".



My question is that weather or not I can use "so-called" in such a context. I was thinking to "widely accepted" or "broadly adopted" though. However, this question struck my mind.



Answer



To me so-called means it is contested. (His so-called wife is really a paid escort.) It can be used to express one's opinion that a name or term is inappropriate. It doesn't always mean a negative, but your audience would need to know your context to understand it.


So if you want to be certain that your comment is not seen as a negative one, use your other phrases instead. Both "widely accepted" or "broadly adopted" work.


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