How to parse “ce que l’on appelle de l’amour”

Question

The question is on the clause as highlighted in this passage from La porte étroite by André Gide.

Parfois j’hésite si ce que j’éprouve pour lui c’est bien ce que l’on appelle de l’amour – tant la peinture que d’ordinaire on fait de l’amour diffère de celle que je pourrais en faire. Je voudrais que rien n’en fût dit et l’aimer sans savoir que je l’aime. Surtout je voudrais l’aimer sans qu’il le sût.

QUESTION

1. Does it parse to

   ce que l’on appelle de | l’amour

   in which appelle de forms a verb, or to

   ce que l’on appelle | de l’amour

   in which de l' is a partitive article?

   (One of the online dictionaries says appeler de means appeal against e.g. a court decision, which does not seem to fit the context well.)

2. What would be the standard way to say what people call love? E.g. Gide's phrasing, or ce que l’on appelle amour, or ce que l’on appelle l’amour?

3. If Gide's phrasing is not the standard way, why would Gide have used a non-standard one? What effect is he aiming at? (I realize it may be difficult to tell without more context.)

Answer 1

De is a partitive article. If you had a different noun you could have :

Ce qu'on appelle :

• de la rage
• des hommes avisés

ce que l’on appelle de l’amour

is what I would expect here in the context of Gide's book.

We could of course encounter the phrase ce qu'on appelle amour. For example, Nietzsche's text Was Alles Liebe genannt wird has been translated as Ce qu'on apelle amour (The things people call love).

In Gide's text we are dealing with a specific case with particular people involved. Nietzsche's text is philosophical and deals with love as a (philosophical) concept.

We could also have ce qu'on appelle l'amour. I find it difficult to see a difference in the case of Gide's sentence.

I'm fully aware it's beside the point, but it's just occurred to me that in English you would not differentiate between those, unless maybe you capitalized Love... ?