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	<title>The Singing Bird &#187; Language</title>
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	<link>http://thesingingbird.net</link>
	<description>Sleeping Is Giving In</description>
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		<title>Curiosities</title>
		<link>http://thesingingbird.net/2009/curiosities/</link>
		<comments>http://thesingingbird.net/2009/curiosities/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 30 Jul 2009 12:13:32 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Claire</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Language]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thesingingbird.net/?p=414</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The McGurk effect. First, watch this video while looking at the speaker&#8217;s face. Then, replay the video with your eyes closed. Magic!!]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The McGurk effect. First, watch <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1XWDOwH47Y">this video</a> while looking at the speaker&#8217;s face.</p>
<p>Then, replay the video with your eyes closed.</p>
<p>Magic!!</p>
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		<title>Mistakes People Make With English, Item 1</title>
		<link>http://thesingingbird.net/2009/mistakes-people-make-with-english-item-1/</link>
		<comments>http://thesingingbird.net/2009/mistakes-people-make-with-english-item-1/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 27 May 2009 04:29:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>Claire</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Health]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Language]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://thesingingbird.net/?p=391</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I don&#8217;t really consider myself a prescriptivist, but I do belong to the &#8220;don&#8217;t talk like a jerk&#8221; school of linguistics. Generally I take the view that while some &#8220;incorrect&#8221; usages of English are fine in non-formal settings, e.g. &#8220;there&#8217;s&#8221; for &#8220;there are&#8221;, ending sentences in prepositions, or not using capitals when you&#8217;re on MSN&#8230; [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I don&#8217;t really consider myself a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linguistic_prescription">prescriptivist</a>, but I do belong to the &#8220;don&#8217;t talk like a jerk&#8221; school of linguistics. Generally I take the view that while some &#8220;incorrect&#8221; usages of English are fine in non-formal settings, e.g. &#8220;there&#8217;s&#8221; for &#8220;there are&#8221;, ending sentences in prepositions, or not using capitals when you&#8217;re on MSN&#8230; other usages will make you look like a big moron no matter when you say them!!</p>
<p>Case in point:</p>
<p><b>Begging the Question</b><br />
&#8220;Beg the question&#8221; doesn&#8217;t mean &#8220;bring up the question&#8221;, &#8220;raise the question&#8221;, &#8220;prompt the question&#8221;, &#8220;demand the question&#8221; or &#8220;invite the question&#8221;.</p>
<p>Rather, &#8220;begging the question&#8221; (question here in the sense of &#8220;issue in point&#8221;) is actually a specific type of logical fallacy, often the same as a circular argument, defined in Fowler&#8217;s Modern English usage as &#8220;the fallacy of founding a conclusion on a basis that as much needs to be proved as the conclusion itself&#8221;. It&#8217;s usually when you take for granted what you&#8217;re trying to prove (that is, your conclusion is implicitly also one of your premises), e.g. &#8220;God must exist because the Bible says He does&#8221;, or &#8220;lying is wrong because people should tell the truth&#8221;, but may also be, more generally, when one of your explicit or implicit premises is at least as assumptive or controversial as your conclusion, e.g. &#8220;All murder is morally wrong, therefore abortion is morally wrong&#8221;.</p>
<p>Use the phrase in this sense!!! If you&#8217;re talking about raising a question, then for the good of us all just <i>say</i> &#8220;raising a question&#8221;. <i>Maybe</i> &#8220;beg <i>for</i> the question&#8221; kind of means the same as &#8220;demand the question&#8221;? At a stretch? But the examples I gave are certainly more elegant phrasings and as a bonus they don&#8217;t make you look like you don&#8217;t know anything about <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informal_logic">informal logic</a>.</p>
<p>This public service announcement has been brought to you by the letters C and S, as in &#8220;Claire is Sick :(&#8220;.</p>
<p><b>Edit:</b> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_misconceptions">Wikipedia list of common misconceptions</a> is interesting!</p>
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