Via The Butch Stroll, I came across this post by Kevin Drum:
BEGGING THE QUESTION....Whenever I use the phrase "begging the question" on this blog I always get at least a couple of commenters taking me to task for misusing it. I've always meant to reply to their complaints but have somehow never gotten around to it, which turns out to be lucky because John Holbo does it for me today — and is then soundly thrashed in comments for his efforts. As a pretty thoroughgoing descriptivist, though, I agree with him: common usage on this one has long since changed. It's time to give up the fight.
When I checked, this post sported 193 comments in case you are exercised by this sort of discussion.
There is no doubt that language changes. But as any good conservative will tell you, change is not the same as improvement Every improvement is a change, but not every change is an improvement. If one were a thoroughgoing descriptivist one would have to countenance the effacing of all sorts of distinctions that are marked in standard English -- distinctions that are essential to clear thinking.
So I refuse to give up the fight. My views on this topic are here.
I'm not sure how many descriptivists are absolutist in their stance, just as I'm not sure how many prescriptivists seriously believe there is only one standard, proper English (or an exccedingly limited number of standard, proper Englishes). As you write, "There is no doubt that language changes." However, the question of improvement/degradation seems a bit murky. If a term becomes vague over time, other terms will fill the gap because intellectually rigorous people won't have it any other way. Whether semantic vagueness is bad or good depends on context. Do I want all poems to read like tech manuals? (Confession: I don't even want tech manuals to read like tech manuals.) Kevin
Posted by: Kevin Kim | Sunday, 15 May 2005 at 11:11
Yikes-- "exceedingly," not "exccedingly." Kevin
Posted by: Kevin Kim | Sunday, 15 May 2005 at 11:13