3 ms·

I disagree, because wherefore is basically an archaic word that people use to conjure up images of Shakespearean English. It's usage hasn't really evolved in co

• jfengel 4y ago
  It's too bad that "begs the question" has changed to match a phrase we already had, "raises the question". But since actual question-begging is just met by "you didn't answer my question", it's not too big a loss.
  • dragonwriter 4y ago
    > It's too bad that "begs the question" has changed to match a phrase we already had, "raises the question" It hasn't changed, it has expanded to include an transitive form which is a rationalization and folk-etymology of the intransitive form (whose obsolete use of every word except “the” makes it otherwise stand out in modern English.) The mediocre-translation-from-Latin-to-obsoletr-English intransitive form makes sense when viewed as (though obviously this isn't the real etymology) a variation of the more transitive form where the omitted object is “the question of the justification of the original claim”. “Purists” objecting to the newer form which is structurally distinct and thus impossible to confuse with the older form, creating no ambiguity of meaning, are just showing a lack of understanding of the structure of English.