In Italian I could write Ho visto “l’albergo” dove lavori. (I saw the “hotel” where you work.) In that sentence, I am not quoting what somebody said, but I am using albergo in an euphemistic way, probably because I don’t want to really call with its name what I have seen.
Is it possible to do the same in English, or should I use something different? In the latter case, what should I write instead of I saw the “hotel” where you work?
Answer
Yes, the punctuation as in I saw the “hotel” where you work. works in English as well as in Italian; according to wikipedia’s Scare Quotes article,
Scare quotes are quotation marks placed around a word or phrase to imply that it may not signify its apparent meaning or that it is not necessarily the way the quoting person would express its concept. Thus, the quotes are used to establish a use–mention distinction, in a similar way as verbally prefixing a phrase with “so-called”. When referred to as “scare quotes”, the quotation marks are suggested to imply skepticism or disagreement with the quoted terminology.
(Emphases added.)
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : apaderno , Answer Author : James Waldby – jwpat7
