I am sure that many times a day I write or speak in a grammatically poor way. I am probably even doing it in this post, but it really irritates me when I hear people use the phrase begs the question incorrectly. It irritates me even more when I hear it on TV or radio, and I hear it a lot on the show "Ugly Betty."
To beg the question is to use a circular argument to prove something, for example, "The best cars are VWs, because VW makes the best cars." It does not mean "raises the obvious question."
Sadly I know that what I type about it here will make little difference, since it has already taken root as a cliche to mean "raises the obvious question."
Even so I will continue to get irritated when I hear it.
And just for a fun: Logical Fallacies.
To beg the question is to use a circular argument to prove something, for example, "The best cars are VWs, because VW makes the best cars." It does not mean "raises the obvious question."
Sadly I know that what I type about it here will make little difference, since it has already taken root as a cliche to mean "raises the obvious question."
Even so I will continue to get irritated when I hear it.
And just for a fun: Logical Fallacies.
Comments
With "begs the question" which comes from the jargon of logic, it just irritates me to see it misused, even though the meaning is almost always clear.
Oh and if makes you feel better, previously this year I finally accepted blog as a real word. :)