4 ms·
I couldn't make it passed the misuse of "begs the question."
by mdasher 11y ago
I couldn't make it passed the misuse of "begs the question."
- zeveb 11y agoAnd from the Beeb of all broadcasters! Shameful, really.
- dfc 11y agoIt bothers me too. The really bad news for American English is that the latest edition of Garner's Modern Usage rates this sense of "beg the question" at "Language Change Index: 4" which means "ubiquitous but..."
- RodericDay 11y agoI find mixing up "beg the question" a very understandable, sensible mistake compared to "make it passed", tbh.
- a3n 11y agoI had trouble making that make cense to. This mini-thread might remind us that most of us make spelling, grammatical and usage errors, we usually understand anyway, and we should usually forgive and forget. Said as an old person who makes more mistakes by the day, and cares less.
- akavi 11y agoBlame the person who chose to translate "petition principii" so terribly. No one in isolation would interpret the Modern English phrase "begs the question" as meaning "assumes the desired conclusion as a premise"; the natural, "naive" interpretation is that it's synonymous with "raises the question". So why blame the reader for the translator's mistake? If you need a translation of "petitio princippi", maybe you can use "assumes the conclusion" or "takes $premise for granted" instead?
- gweinberg 11y agoI agree that "begs the question" is an awkward way of saying "assumes the conclusion", but it is also an awkward way of saying "raises the question". As the Mad Hatter sagely observed, one should say what one means.
- wodenokoto 11y agoI find the "wrong" usage very intuitive and vivid, while the "correct" usage is very unclear in its relation to its meaning. According to wikipedia the "correct" usage stems from a mistranslation, so maybe it is about time to stop saying "beg the question", when you really mean that someone is "assuming a point or conclusion", although honestly, I have never encountered this usage. I suppose that begs the question: does it even mean "to assume a point" anymore?
- Dylan16807 11y agoHeh. "passed". I get it.
- phaemon 11y agoIt's not a misuse. It's the correct usage. The notion that "begging the question" being used as a piece of debating jargon, is the only possible use or arrangement of those words, is frankly bizarre. I really wish this foolish "correction" would just go away.