Date:  Mon, 8 Apr 1996 11:30:26 -0400

From:  "M. Lynne Murphy" <104LYN[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MUSE.ARTS.WITS.AC.ZA>

Subject: begging the question



can't remember who was collecting "beg the questions", but here is

another. i have no idea which reading to assign to this use. i

think the phrase has become so ambiguous as to be meaningless to me.



from "public sector salaries 'justified'" by phillipa garson, _weekly

mail and guardian_ (south africa), 4-11 april 1996:



"A director of a leading mining house or public company like Escom

can earn almost twice as much as the president, begging the question

of whether salaries in the private sector are not grossly inflated."



now, i would say that this gets the newer reading ('begging for the

question to be asked'), except that the article is about public

sector salaries, not private (this sentence is sort of a non-sequitur

paragraph), so maybe they are using the old meaning ('avoiding the

question'). i dunno.



lynne



---------------------------------------------------------------------

M. Lynne Murphy              104lyn[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]muse.arts.wits.ac.za

Department of Linguistics            phone: 27(11)716-2340

University of the Witwatersrand          fax: 27(11)716-8030

Johannesburg 2050

SOUTH AFRICA