[lit-ideas] Re: Current Irritant
- From: "Donal McEvoy" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "donalmcevoyuk" for DMARC)
- To: "lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2016 13:16:32 +0000 (UTC)
This usage has been going on for years. Michael Parkinson may be largely
responsible. Growing up I thought it meant "raises the question", with "begs"
being used as in "asks" and "asks" being used as in "raised" (is this how it
widened sense?). Only later did the narrower, stricter meaning become known to
me - i.e. of something that assumes what is being is disputed e.g. to say God's
miracles prove God's existence begs the question of God's existence (unless
their provenance can be proved independent of any assumption of God's
existence, which appears not the case).
For me, the problem may be that question-begging in the stricter sense is a
detectible argumentative flaw, and replacement of the narrower sense for the
wider therefore diminishes attunement to whether the flaw is present. I say
that from a logical, argumentative point of view. But, as to whether loss of a
linguistic sense based on a specific logical distinction leads to loss to
attunement to that underlying distinction, this of course begs the question.
DBeggar of beliefs and questionsCurrently irritated to a much greater extent by
other things
L
From: "epostboxx@xxxxxxxx" <epostboxx@xxxxxxxx>
To: Lit-Ideas <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, 28 December 2016, 11:13
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Current Irritant
On 28 Dec 2016, at 03:45, david ritchie <profdritchie@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I keep hearing, “begs the question” for “raises the question.” … What is
wrong with these people?
I’m glad to hear that someone else is irritated by this — I was beginning to
think that this was a long-accepted British English usage. I hear it
constantly from British interviewers and commentators and was unaware that this
particular rot hat set in across the pond as well.
But maybe its just us that have something wrong, David — i.e., we’re getting
old, and the language is (for better or for worse) moving on, as languages do.
(This is a prime example of the word ‘evolution’ and its cognates meaning
simply ‘change’ — not always for the better.)
'Begs the question’ is just the latest in an ever-longer-growing list:
‘hijacking’ when one clearly means an act of air piracy, ‘decimate’ when one
clearly means not just one of ten but the vast majority killed, ‘the exception
proves the rule’ when one is unaware ‘prove’ in this case clearly means ‘test’
… (list members are requested to continue the list with ‘pet’ irritants of
their own).
Of particular irritation to me is the use of ‘democratic’ to mean
‘egalitarian’. Just yesterday a commentator on the new philharmonic hall in
Hamburg wrote that the room was ‘democratic’ — meaning that one experienced the
same quality of sound regardless of where one sits. A ‘democratic’ concert hall
— now that WOULD be something ...
Chris Bruce,
eagerly awaiting commencement of concerts
in the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, in
Kiel, Germany
P.S.
Answers on the back of a ten shilling postal order, please.
Hmm, I seem to have run out — perhaps you could replenish my supply.
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