<blockquote><font size="1" face="Arial, Helvetica ,sans-serif">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by dmfugitive: The so-called incorrect use of "beg the question" crops up all the time, far more often than it should, regardless of what it means. Yet in every case, it would be clearer and more direct to burn another 2 letters and say "raise the question." <p>On those blessed occasions when the phrase is used correctly, the writer invariably tosses in some breast-beating about how all those other idiots say "beg the question" when they really mean "raise the question." They do this not only to show off their big, throbbing brains, but also because most people, like it or not, have come to think the phrase means "raise the question." (My boys Tom and Wayne might call that evolution, but I'll just stay out of it.) <p>So here's your choice: Use it incorrectly and know it's a cliche, or use it correctly and be a pedant. I hesitate to say whether that qualifies as a dilemma, but I'm sure someone has the definition handy and can beat me about the head and shoulders with it.<hr></blockquote><p>I don't mean that "evolution" always leads to improvement. In fact, unlike in evolution within nature, we can and should try to save valuable nuances of language.<p>My point is that change does occur over time (evolution), whether we like it or not. How we deal with changes in language usage is crucial to clarity in the short and long term.<p>We're not obligated to use new terms if they're unclear, and we're not obligated to misuse old terms. This goes for formal terms and slang. When they're proper to use is a judgment call.<p>In my opinion, some words are dead to us in most contexts, if only temporarily. For instance, no one needs to use "presently," but we're nearing the point at which few people know how it was used a few decades ago; soon, it will be clear to all when it's used to denote "now" -- its most popular usage today, though probably incorrect to most of us here.<p>Another word: "gay." Not so many years ago it became recognized as slang for "homosexual." I'm looking at a dictionary from 1984 that has "homosexual" as its third definition of "gay," and not as slang. AP began allowing it about a dozen years ago, and most publications have dropped their prohibitions of it. Probably 100 percent of readers will immediately think "homosexual" when they see "gay" in a headline; how many did in 1990? 1980? 1970? <p>I don't remember when I first heard "gay" used that way, don't know when I began to consider it the dominant meaning, and sure can't speak for readers at large.<p>Computers could be programmed to survey the use of language and make such determinations ("jumping the shark," anyone?), but who trusts word-processing programs' spelling, hyphenation or grammar checking? Folks like us will have to keep making these judgment calls.<p>[ August 27, 2002: Message edited by: Wayne Countryman ]<p>[ August 28, 2002: Message edited by: Wayne Countryman ]</p>
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