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Subject: 
Re: The "Unknown" Santa Fe
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Tue, 5 Mar 2002 16:57:56 GMT
Viewed: 
148 times
  
In lugnet.trains, Rick Clark writes:
Of course, it is possible that you felt that his comments -were-
avoiding the question of his motivation for buying the sets, in which
case, I'll shut up, except to say that such confusion is the reason many
grammarians discourage the use of the "avoid" definition of "beg the
question."


Not that I'm an expert on grammar, but my entire life 'begs the question'
meant to expound on the previous thought with a question...  let me see if I
can make a Daveish scenario...

Person 1 "I think that your interest in LEGO is too extreme."
(who of us hasn't heard this particular rant? but that's a topic for another
time.. ;) )

Person 2 "Well then, that begs the question, 'how much interest is too much?'"

This is what I thought 'begs the question' inferred.  Which then begs the
question, "What do you think 'begs the question' means?"

My personal pet peeves is the option/choices grammar

When someone says, "You have two choices, this or that.", they are
completely incorrect.

'A' choice is to decide between 2 options:

"You have a choice, either apple pie or chocolate cake"

When you have 2 choices, you have 2x2 options:

"You have 2 choices, either apple pie or chocolate cake *or* rhubarb pie or
lemon merange pie"

The correct grammar, again imho, in the usual context that everyone uses, is
to say 'You have 2 options...' and not 'You have 2 choices...'

That's my only grammatical pet peeve that I can think of off the top of my head.

Stay safe

Dave



Message has 1 Reply:
  Re: The "Unknown" Santa Fe
 
(...) By the way, an "inference" is traditionally made by the person who's doing the reading/listening/interpreting. You're thinking of "implied," which is done by the person/thing making the statement. Person A: Are you implying that I'm stingy? (...) (23 years ago, 5-Mar-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)

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