Monday, January 31, 2005

Idiom alert: "poner en evidencia"

Poner en evidencia looks as though it ought to mean "demonstrate," "give evidence to show." In fact, it does seem as though this meaning is often intended. Native speakers seem to misuse it this way often enough to rate a note by J. Javier Mangado Martínez at this site. He writes:
Poner en evidencia no significa en español ‘hacer patente o demostrar con claridad la certeza de algo’, o sea, no equivale a evidenciar. De la expresión en evidencia nos puntualiza el DRAE: "Con los verbos poner, estar, quedar, etc. [vale tanto como] en ridículo, en situación desairada" Así que poner en evidencia quiere decir ‘ridiculizar’. Queda, pues, en evidencia quien, pretendiendo halagar dando imagen de persona cultivada, dice lo contrario de lo que quiere cuando afirma de alguien, por ejemplo, que su actitud "pone en evidencia su capacidad de diálogo".

Saturday, January 15, 2005

Unamazing language curmudgeon

I find myself unexplicably annoyed by the current use of amazing to mean "wonderful" or sometimes even just "big." Amazing: causing surprise, wonder, astonishment. When we describe someone's comportment in a situation, or simply their personality as "amazing," are we implying that wonderfulness is astonishing or surprising?

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