This begs the question: Is the correct usage of "begging the question" dead?

[$tevie]

ka jowct wrote: The Joey character in "Friends" once used the phrase "It's a moo question." When asked it, he said " It's like a cow's opinion. Nobody cares."

That makes me laugh every time.

ka jowct wrote:
No one seems to be able to manage correct subjunctives anymore, either. Instead of saying "If I had known, I would have...", you hear "If I would have known, I would have..." which is nonsense.

What I hear is ""If I would of known, I would of..."

[ka jowct]

$tevie wrote:
[quote=ka jowct]The Joey character in "Friends" once used the phrase "It's a moo question." When asked it, he said " It's like a cow's opinion. Nobody cares."

That makes me laugh every time.

ka jowct wrote:
No one seems to be able to manage correct subjunctives anymore, either. Instead of saying "If I had known, I would have...", you hear "If I would have known, I would have..." which is nonsense.

What I hear is ""If I would of known, I would of..."
Yes. I was being too kind. People also seem to have no idea of when to say "me" and when to say "I" (or whatever personal pronoun). No concept of subject and object.

[DeusxMac]

GuyGene wrote:
To me, standards have meaning. There should be standard English, ev n though languages change over time. Grammar especially needs a standard. And vocabulary, e.g., awesome has about lost its power as a word.

Successful communication is always the goal. Are you conveying exactly what you intended, or are you being misinterpreted, misunderstood, or not understood at all?

Precise words and phrases used in the correct context and construction convey the clearest communication.

Lack of vocabulary and proper (widely accepted) usage standards inevitably diminish successful communication. It's directly proportionate; the poorer the verbal abilities, the poorer the communication.

[cbelt3]

I am also going to confess to never knowing the correct use of the term. Thank you for sharing that.

[Yoyodyne ArtWorks]

For decades (centuries?) people were perfectly content to say, "That raises the question..." Then people who had no actual understanding of the actual meaning of "begs the question" began using that phrase (probably because they thought it sounded more erudite than "raises") and the downward trend was initiated. After that it's just people learning the phrase phonetically from those around them...

It's a bit like people who use the phrase "I could care less" without ever trying to resolve the contradiction between the actual meaning of the phrase and the thought they're trying to express.

[August West]

This begs the question: What makes the "incorrect" use incorrect, rather than new?

:ftw:

[Article Accelerator]

Dennis S wrote: Here's a link to the correct usage:

https://www.google.com/search?q=begging+the+question&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

That's a link to a search. Do you have a link to an article?

[Article Accelerator]

I could care less.

[Acer]

Ironic, don't ya think?

[Dennis S]

Article Accelerator wrote:
[quote=Dennis S]Here's a link to the correct usage:

https://www.google.com/search?q=begging+the+question&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari

That's a link to a search. Do you have a link to an article?
I don't know if anyone has written about my point. Pick one of the links that looks good to you for the definition, though.