On 2/28/2015 1:53 PM, Bob Whitmire wrote:
No! No! Arrrrggggggg! Improper use of begging the question. Begging the question refers to
circular reasoning and stands alone. No question follows begging the question. All of this
_raises_ some questions . . . etc. Wikipedia: Begging the question means “assuming
the conclusion (of an argument)", a type of circular reasoning. This is an informal
fallacy where the conclusion that one is attempting to prove is included in the initial
premise of an argument, often in an indirect way that conceals this fact.
Sorry. It’s my most persistent language neurosis. Chris B has his pluperfect and I
have my begging questions. <g>
I believe this is different in kind from the usage complaints Chris and others often bring up. Pronoun cases, verb
tenses, and so on are truly about the mechanics of language. "Begging the question" is about a definition, a word to
name a thing, which seems to me a very different part of language than structure and usage.
If we encounter someone saying "I wish I hadn't had that carburetor for lunch last Wednesday. I had had indigestion all
afternoon, until that fellow who gave me that antacid became someone to whom I owe a big debt.", we know we have
encountered a decent (if perhaps fussy) grammarian who misunderstands the meaning of a word; doesn't know to what* the
particular collection of letters "carburetor" refers.
I am currently reading a literary novel. It's written by a youngish person with a PhD. from Baylor in English Literature
who has been teaching that subject for a few years at a mid level University. Allowing for the occasionally excessive
use of allusion and metaphor, oddly overdone descriptions and so on typical of the genre, it's a pretty well written book.
One reviewer said of it. "I found myself smiling at how carefully it was constructed, how lyrically it was written. It
really is a skillfully written book.... This is definitely one I'd recommend to lovers of thrillers as well as literary
fiction ..."
The protagonist is a young woman who has a 1971 Chevrolet Chevelle 350, which she works on herself. The errors of fact
about the engine and her work on it are amusing.
Elsewhere in the book, she writes "Which begs the question: Why bring it up?" Has she made an error there in usage, in
which she is a certificated expert and of which she is teacher, or in definition, as she did about parts of the Chevy
V8? I argue the latter.
Last night in conversation, Carol used the phrase in the same way. I would not have noticed her "error", had I not been
informed of the "real" meaning here sometime in the past. The phrase makes perfect sense used that way.
I would argue two things:
First, it's a silly definition. Most logical forms of argument, etc. have names that don't beg to be (mis)interpreted
based on their content. If it were called "Gumby's fallacy", or some such thing, people would either know it or look it
up. "Begs the question" sounds way too much like an ordinary construction by someone saying that some event or
circumstance "begs that the question be asked, why ... [did that fool say/do that?]"
Second, the ship has sailed. The once generally useful verb "to discriminate" and its noun, adjective and adverb forms,
has forever lost its broader past meaning in favor of a specific one during our lifetimes. Likewise, if a professor of
literature is writing a well received, commercially successful book using the phrase to mean what it sounds like, rather
than some arcane specialist usage, and reasonably well educated folks competent in cases and verb tenses, such as Carol
and I, find it normal, it's the specialists who need to fix their silliness.
Perhaps if your blood pressure gets low, you could find another thing to het
you up and raise it? :-)
What the heck, give it a name in Wikipedia; do the world a tiny favor. ;-)
Dead Horse Moose
* Why doesn't "what" have cases?
--
What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
--
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