Couldn't agree with you more about question-beggars, Bob. You may wish to
impart to EW that for communication to be effective, it must be mutually
understood (by speaker and spoken-to) to mean the same thing. You can't be
sure of that being the case if you use "beg the question" in that way - 'cos
you, me, Andrew and Chris will misunderstand. Be sure, we *will*
misunderstand, on a point of principle!
Another couple for you to mull over:
Every "easily recognised" image nowadays seems to be "iconic". I think we
need to set an iconoclast on that one.
And every moderately difficult task is described as having "a steep learning
curve" which is completely the opposite and converse (yes, both of those,
together and at the same time) of the true meaning - that in the given
occupation one learns a great deal very quickly. Difficulty or ease is
beside the point!
Hmm, this is much more satisfying than mere apostrophes!
Piers
-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Whitmire [mailto:bwhitmire@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: 27 May 2011 15:03
To: Olympus Camera Discussion
Subject: Re: [OM] [OT] In depth SUV scientific based analysis (was TotallyOT
I'll be sure to get it. Always enjoy reading about fallacies. And even
though I sometimes can't resist the urge to push buttons and pull chains, I
do have my own set of language bugaboos. Right now it's "Beg the question."
My wife and I argue about this one all the time.
There's a character on a popular TV crime show, NCIS: Los Angeles, whose
name is Henrietta, also known as Hettie. She is played by the talented and
infinitely durable Linda Hunt. Hettie, to say the least, is one superbly
intelligent creature, not to mention knowledgeable about many esoteric
things. Two or three times now she's used the phrase "this begs the
question" in the sense that "this demands an answer" or variations thereof.
That's wrong. Not to be pedantic (ouch!), but begging the question properly
means something more like circular reasoning.
I'll opine to Esteemed Wife that Hettie is wrong, and she'll lecture me
about the purpose of language being to communicate, and if it communicates,
how can it be wrong? She believes in organic language, and if no one except
you and me and Chris and a few others on this list know the real meaning of
beg the question, then the much more common (and incorrect) definition will
come to be the correct definition. I allow as how she's probably right, but
that doesn't make it right.
She smirks, but then I point out that regardless of what's right and what's
wrong and what's organic and evolutionary, etc., a character such as Hettie
would _never_ misuse beg the question. In fact, she would correct in no
uncertain terms any of her people who did so misuse it.
--Bob
On May 27, 2011, at 6:36 AM, Andrew Fildes wrote:
> You need my book - 'A Complete Fallacy' - available for Kindle on Amazon
right now! :-)
--
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