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Words to the Wise
Begging the Question of the
English Language
Is it my
imagination, or are there more people grumbling these days about
how English grammar and usage are going to the dogs? CBC Radio
recently asked, does grammar matter? and invited listeners to
tweet and email the Grammar Police with their pet peeves. They
did so, "in droves." Listening to the
podcast of the Grammar Police Finale, you could be forgiven
for thinking the situation is dire.
Beacon
readers might suppose that because I'm an editor, I'm also a
grammar crank, like those school teachers of yore who drummed
silly rules into innocent wooly heads, rules that were never
rules but became cemented in the brains of otherwise intelligent
people. I'll admit that I used to be a crank—when I was green
and editorially uneducated. But I have learned so much about the
origins and evolution and elasticity of the English language
that I now actually become excited by the changes I see,
especially when they are used creatively by writers, and I smile
to myself over the sweat people generate at the use of gonna
and anyways and friending. Get over it, I think;
the language she is ever a-changin'.
But—and isn't there
always a but?—I am saddened when I see a good expression lost
through change of usage. Such is the expression beg the
question. The last time I heard beg the question used
in its original sense was ... well, I really can't remember. The
expression meant "to assume the truth of the thing that is to be
proved" or to argue in a circle. A classic example is,
"Reasonable people are those who think and reason
intelligently," which begs the question, what does it mean to
think and reason intelligently? Today, almost universally, the
expression means "to raise the question" or "to invite an
obvious question," and the original meaning is all but extinct.
Which is too bad, because it's a succinct way to express a
difficult concept and there are other, simple ways to express
what it has come to mean. I always point this out to my clients
who use the expression in their writing. Their speaking I can do
nothing about, but to preserve the original in writing is at
least something.
References:
Canadian Oxford Dictionary,
2nd ed., Oxford University Press, 2004.
Bryan A. Garner,
Garner's Modern American Usage, Oxford University Press,
2003.
On the evolution of the
English language, I recommend
Bill Bryson, Mother Tongue: The English
Language, HarperCollins, 2001, and
An Appreciation of English: A language in motion,
by James Harbeck.
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