more begging of the question.

[Joel S. Berson]

I wrote imprecisely.  I should have written that Sen. Nelson may
simply have used "begged" (yes, passive) where he may have intended
"begging":  "The question is begging to be answered" (an
understandable utterance) vs. "...the question is begged to be answered."

There is another possibility.  With the passive one doesn't know who
is begging -- perhaps Nelson saw the question itself pleading for an answer!

Joel

At 4/12/2007 11:33 AM, Michael H Covarrubias wrote:
>That would make sense and we could read it that way if Nelson had said "the
>question is begging" or "the question begs."
>
>But he uses the passive: "the question is begged."
>
>mhc
>
>Quoting "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>:
>
> > Isn't it here "the question begs (pleads) to be answered" (which
> > makes some sense to me), rather than "a person begs the question"?
> >
> >
> > At 4/12/2007 02:06 AM, Michael wrote:
> > >Wednesday: Senator Bill Nelson D-Florida, heard on C-SPAN.
> > >
> > >"...the question is begged to be answered."
> > >
> > >I'm not sure I even understand how he thinks this sentence makes
> sense. But
> > >perhaps now when someone 'begs the question' it's because the answer is in
> > >control of whether or not it can be answered.
> > >
> > >"Please be answered!" we might plead of especially difficult questions.
> > >
> > >Michael Covarrubias
> > >
> > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> > >   English Language & Linguistics
> > >   Purdue University
> > >   mcovarru at purdue.edu
>
> > >   web.ics.purdue.edu/~mcovarru
> > >  <http://wishydig.blogspot.com>
>
> > >~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
>------------------------------------------------------------
>The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org