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

[wurm]

$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..."
One of my biggest pet peeves. And people do it constantly. Many years ago I saw a full page ad in Time or Newsweek or some such major publication with the caption: "Who'd of thought that ...(blah blah blah)". I curse myself regularly for not taking the time to rip out and save that page.

Time again for my bookmark reminder: https://brians.wsu.edu/common-errors-in-english-usage/

[m.paris]

ka jowct wrote:
[quote=$tevie]
[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.
Not to mention: misuse of the reflexive "myself" as a nominative or using "me" when the reflexive is called for.

[ka jowct]

I've also noticed a lot of sports people (as seen on ESPN) saying "transpired" rather than "happened". Is there something wrong with "happen" now?

[NewtonMP2100]

....there is an uber narcissistic person in the office [ youngish person ] who graduated from an Ivy League school but can't even write a grammatically correct email/letter.......even reading his writing gives one a headache.......his subject/objects are off and he doesn't know how to punctuate correct........his sentences run on for paragraphs.....

.......and yes he gets promoted.......

[Janit]

To beg a question means to assume the conclusion of an argument—a type of circular reasoning. This is an informal fallacy, in which an arguer includes the conclusion to be proven within a premise of the argument, often in an indirect way such that its presence within the premise is hidden or at least not easily apparent.

The term "begging the question", as this is usually phrased, originated in the 16th century as a mistranslation of the Latin petitio principii, which actually translates as "assuming the initial point".

The original phrase used by Aristotle from which begging the question descends is [phrase in Greek rejected by Phorum software] "asking for the initial thing."


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Begging_the_question

Probably best to avoid using the phrase in any context.

[SteveG]

billb wrote:
Isn't it great that American English is a living language which is used extensively outside of a Harvard Language Lab, by many for whom english is not a primary language.


Isn't diversity great ?

Glad you honed in on that.

[Article Accelerator]

wurm wrote: Time again for my bookmark reminder: https://brians.wsu.edu/common-errors-in-english-usage/

Excellent link, wurm—thanks!

[dk62]

The living nature of the language is less of a problem than people trying to sound smart and educated when they are not - as pointed out above, there is nothing wrong with "raises the question." This goes along with the recent common improper use of "I" instead of "me" in aggressive attempts to avoid being wrong the other way around.

[Dennis S]

dk62 wrote:
The living nature of the language is less of a problem than people trying to sound smart and educated when they are not - as pointed out above, there is nothing wrong with "raises the question." This goes along with the recent common improper use of "I" instead of "me" in aggressive attempts to avoid being wrong the other way around.

I think people do this with "whomever."

[$tevie]

I read recently that the rise in popularity of the word "impacted" is due to people being uncertain whether to used "affected" or "effected".