I'm writing a fiction novel, and I'm not quite sure about the rules on italics.
Are the following italicized correctly?
- John Doe, or Big John as he liked to be called, went to the market.
- The item in his hand, which he called a tablet, was a powerful computer.
- He wasn’t comfortable around rich people whom he called fancy folks.
The context is narration within a novel.
Edit: See answer by Silenus below.
Edit: Title changed to make it easier to search.
Best Answer
The verb "called" has an appellative use and a non-appellative use. In the former, specific words are identified by which something is called. In the latter, no specific words are mentioned. (1) is an example of an appellative use and (2) is an example of a non-appellative use.
In the appellative case, the words specified must be marked as occurring metalinguistically. That is, quotation marks or italics should be used.
All of your examples seem to be appellative, so you probably want the italics, except, perhaps, on the first one, involving Big John. This is because of the structure: "Big John" is not occurring in the standard object position of "called." I think that one might work without italics but I would include them for emphasis and consistency.