IVP - Addenda & Errata - Not on my watch!

Not on my watch!

I must have been the last one to notice the use of “beg the question” to mean “begs for us to ask the question.” It was pointed out to me by my son, who had heard a radio sports commentator use it and had sent him an email pointing out his improper use of the phrase. (The commentator thanked him and repented!) I was touched. I didn’t realize my son cared that much about these things. There's a chip off the old block.

As an editor, all I can say is, you’re not going to get away with it on my watch! “Beg the question” is to be reserved for petitio principii, a shorthand way of saying “You’re assuming (in your premise) what you claim to prove.” It’s related to the fallacy of the circular argument. It’s true enough that “beg the question” is not even a good translation of the Latin petitio principii, and it has a certain elusive quality all to itself. This is part of its glory. And it’s also true that, having learned what it does mean, we would like to have others go to the trouble of learning its proper meaning and usage. This is called passing it on.

However, vanity aside, I do not think that editors should contribute to the deterioration of a useful term with a long pedigree. Language evolves. True enough. But there are also unproductive mutations that do not bring clarity in their wake, and they should be (pardon the violence) annihilated. If you want to say that such and such requires you to ask a further question, just say that or “This leads to the following question” or “This raises the question” or “This calls to mind the question of” or “This prompts the question.”

Stop to think about it. What other things do you beg? He begged the dinner? She begged the dress? The dog begged the bone? Do these sound natural? No. Let me calmly suggest that the only reason you’ve misused “beg the question” is that you’ve heard the expression and you think you know what it means and think that the slightly odd sound of it has gained currency or cachet. There is the abbreviated expression “I beg your pardon,” which is to say, “I beg for your pardon.” But “begging the question” (in the mutated sense) is even more telegraphic, since it would mean “It begs for the question to be asked.”

I’m a firm believer in the basic linguistic principle that the meaning of a word (or phrase) is found in its use and not in its etymology. But in this case, we are seeing a new meaning emerge in real time usage, and it’s rather ridiculous. It's based on a misunderstanding and confuses rather than enhances communication. But there you have it.

Of course, you must recognize that as an editor I get paid to have opinions about these matters. And I gain gravitas among some of my bookish peers by throwing a fit over this issue. In fact, the higher I spiral and the more clever I am in exposing this fraud on the English language, the more approving noises I hear from the editorial hall. And so I beg the forgiveness.

Posted by Dan Reid at July 17, 2007 12:17 PM