Re: Begs the question/Begging the question

mb <azythos2@xxxxxxxxx> writes:

On May 12, 4:34 pm, Chris Barts <chbarts+use...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"Don Phillipson"
...
The correct meaning is concrete, and specifically useful in
debate or reasoning.   (I.e. its place in the catalogue of logical
errors was a lasting contribution to knowedge.)   Using the phrase
to mean asking the question, avoiding the question, and so on, is
fairly common nowadays -- generally a manifestation of the
imprecise and erroneous use of language.

The above is simple ignorance of how usage shifts over time and is the
hallmark of the prescriptivist. A century ago the same kind of person
would have been decrying the mixture of Greek and Latin roots in
compound words, or berating people who split infinitives.

Guess what, usage has not "shifted" yet. It shifts when the older
usage becomes obsolete, all its users dead and buried, and starts
getting marked "obsol." in your favorite dictionary.

Two points:

* Dictionaries are reactive, not proactive, in a civilized
world. There is always a significant lag between the actual shift
and when it appears in dictionaries.

* A new common sense of the term would not necessarily make the
technial sense obsolete. For example, 'schizophrenic' can mean both
'split-brained' and what the DSM-IV says it means in the same
language. It's one of the wonders of a living tongue.


So right now we are in the phase of misuse by ignorance. Which is
always there almost at the stat with everything. You are probably
right in assuming that the new usage is gaining ground but its final
victory has not happened (and cannot be guaranteed).

This is simply incorrect judging by actual common usage of the
term. The fact some pedants haven't opened their eyes yet is quite
irrelevant to your case.


As for mixing Greek and Latin roots, it has been done since Antiquity,
but that has never been anything but barbarism --continuing to be so
as long as it remains only one side of the story.

Come, now. Not even the worst of the illiterate pedants still hold
with that solecism.
.

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