Usage quandaries, part 1: Beg the question

Submitted by Erin Brenner on Tue, 05/08/2012 - 8:25am

A while back, Bill Walsh tweeting as @TheSlot, sent out this message:

It begs the question: Did you try and literally infer you could care less?

So many phrases to argue over in one little tweet. Would you allow any of them to stand in an edit? Some of them? All of them? Over the next few weeks, I’ll examine each usage problem in turn.

Begs the question

Begs the question comes from logic and is used to point out that an argument made to prove a claim doesn’t actually prove said claim. The argument’s foundation is based on the claim being true.

On his Common Errors in English website, Paul Brians offers a clear example of begging a question: “This painting is trash because it is obviously worthless.” Nothing in that sentence tells us why the painting is trash. The argument begs the question “What makes the painting worthless?”

People outside of the logic discipline have reinterpreted begs the question to mean “invite a follow-up question.” As in:

Despite these laws, there has been increasing concern over the past decade about the increases in the nonmedical use and abuse of prescription drugs. This begs the question of whether the passing of laws addressing the supply side of the problem is the correct approach.—Journal of Drug Issues (Winter 2009)

“The newer meaning is much more common, of course,” says Walsh, “but you won’t see it in copy I’ve written or edited. I’m just not sure we really need another way to express raise the question.

Several style guides, including The Chicago Manual of Style, also advise not using begs the question in this newer sense. But even Garner’s Modern American Usage notes that this meaning is “virtually universal but is opposed on cogent grounds by a few linguistic stalwarts.”

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of English Usage goes further, claiming that begs the question is “fully accepted as standard.”

If even academic and scientific journals are using begs the question to mean “invite a follow-up question,” should you accept it in text? It’s a reasonable argument; there are several reputable resources on your side.

The trick for copyeditors is to know the audience. If the audience is full of traditionalists who bristle at any changes in the language, edit begs the question to raises the question. But if traditionalists represent only a small portion of your audience—or are entirely absent—then let begs the question stand.

Where do you stand on begs the question: Love it? Hate it? Share your opinions in the comments section below!

The rest of the series

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Comments

Begs the question

Anonymous

It's posts like these that make me feel as if, at 56, I'm just too old to be a copy editor. I'm disappointed that you did not address the issue of affectation. "Begs the question," unless it's used in its own sphere of logic, is the province of pretentious writers who want to appear as if they've achieved a level of sophistication and learning (or should I say erudition?) that they haven't. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. This so-called newer use (why not say incorrect use?) is pompous and smacks of ignorance and superciliousness, when it is, in fact, just silly. I'm with Bill Walsh. I would NEVER let it stand. I would edit "begs" to "raises," or "prompts," or "suggests"--all of them useful, serviceable, unambiguous, and, more importantly, unpretentious.

~Robin

Posted on Tue, 05/08/2012 - 9:49am

I was trained as a

Anonymous

I was trained as a philosopher and therefore had frequent occasion to use "beg the question" in its original, correct sense; you'll have to pry the pencil with which I delete the collquiial usage out of my cold, dead hands.

Posted on Tue, 05/08/2012 - 9:56am

Begs the question

Anonymous

A better definition of "begging the question": using as proof something that itself needs proving. We know, for example, that the Bible is the word of God because it says so in the Bible.

Posted on Tue, 05/08/2012 - 11:44am

To me what it comes down to

Anonymous

To me what it comes down to is: how many readers are going to bristle or startle at NOT coming across this disputed usage? Zero, no matter who they are. Unlike some copyeditor favorites like "masterly" or awkward phrasings to avoid splitting an infinitive, the undisputed ways to say "raises/invites a question" are completely natural and un-noticeable. In a situation where every single change exacted some cost in money or psychic energy, I might leave it. In normal circumstances, I don't think there's any upside to letting it stand. It's not any kind of more colorful or compelling way to say it. Rather, as Robin says, it is kind of cluelessly pretentious.

Linda

Posted on Tue, 05/08/2012 - 1:32pm

To me what it comes down to

Anonymous

Linda

Posted on Tue, 05/08/2012 - 1:34pm

Helpful

Anonymous

I like your logic. Sometimes, I think editors are too strict when really, we need to adjust our editing to the style and audience. Some things are judgment calls. I'd probably do as you suggest and change it only when the audience requires it, as I do with instances where "whom" is correct but sounds formal.

Leigh Ann Otte
Freelance Web Writer/Editor

Posted on Tue, 05/08/2012 - 1:51pm

Begs the Question

Anonymous

The comment begs the question of why the original as changed. The original meaning ( which is the oly one which has any real meaning) should be used.

Posted on Tue, 05/08/2012 - 2:44pm

"Beg the question" has become a skunked term

Anonymous

"Beg the question" has become what Bryan Garner would, I believe, call a skunked term. It's so widely misused that no matter whether you allow it to be used incorrectly or are lucky enough to have an author who uses it correctly, many readers will think the use is wrong when it's correct or correct when it's wrong. You are better off avoiding it altogether.

BTW, I love Walsh's clever sentence. I was recently thinking of a related, though admittedly less clever, sentence: Me and him were laying in bed when he asked me to move in with him, and I said yes because we could care less if our parents approved of us cohabitating.

Posted on Sun, 05/13/2012 - 7:58pm

Not a quandary at all

Anonymous

In my opinion, there's no quandary involved in whether to allow "begs the question" in the sense of "raises the question" or "poses the question." It's wrong; end of quandary.

The reason my client hired an editor was to avoid publishing material containing mistakes. It's my job to correct the mistakes I find. If I don't fix "begs the question," I'm not doing my job.

The reason audiences start to think something incorrect is correct is because editors haven't been doing their job, or because material has been published without being edited at all. After you've seen phrases like "fine service at it's best" in print enough times, you start to think the possessive "its" is supposed to have an apostrophe. The fact that it's a common error and often seen in print doesn't make it correct.

Posted on Sun, 05/13/2012 - 8:09pm

begs the question

Anonymous

Although it is impolite to stop an associate in mid-conversation and correct the use of "begs the question," I find myself itching to do so. However, I do teach my students at Alabama State University that what they mean to say is, "it begs for the question," or "it deserves the question." But when I hear a reporter on National Public Radio misuse the phrase, I shoot off an email. I must have sent a dozen emails by now, but they haven't made a dent.
*sigh*
Gita Smith, Montgomery

Posted on Tue, 05/29/2012 - 7:45am