Luis Anaconda
03-06-2013, 10:48 AM
This column recently criticised two Liberal Democrats for misusing the phrase “begging the question”. To beg the question does not mean to raise the question: it means to presuppose in your premises the truth of your conclusion.
My modest protest did no good. John Whittingdale, the Conservative chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, has since spoken about BBC spending on hospitality: “It does beg the question as to whether it is really necessary for the BBC to commit that amount of money . . . ”
That comment is worse, far worse, than the offence committed by the Lib Dems. Whittingdale’s use of begging the question is merely mistaken; adding to it “as to whether” is stilted and unnecessary. The two little words “as to” often appear before an interrogative (who, what, when, whether, why, how). They are always ugly and almost always redundant. Where they do serve some purpose, they can and should be replaced by the direct and idiomatic “about” or “on”.
Examples of this plague abound.Here is Alex Massie in The Spectator:“I argued that people can disagree in good faith on the question as to whether Kenny MacAskill was correct to let Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi return to Libya to die.” In a book review in the Telegraph, Anthony Howard writes that “the question has to remain open as to whether [the book] was worth all the research its author has obviously put into it”.
A football correspondent for The Guardian writes: “The question was put to Wenger as to whether the dressing room had found fresh spirit.”
Let me explain as to what is wrong with all this. Arsne Wenger was asked: “Has the dressing room found fresh spirit?” He was, therefore, asked the question whether the dressing room had found fresh spirit. It would be better still to say: Arsne Wenger was asked whether the dressing room had found fresh spirit. This is entirely proper usage, and it is simpler than the Guardian’s report. There is no need for “as to”, let alone “the question as to”.
The objection to “as to” is usually stylistic rather than grammatical.
But it is bad style. When, in Matthew’s Gospel, the high priest spoke to Jesus, he did not say: “I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us as to whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.”
thepedant@thetimes.co.uk
My modest protest did no good. John Whittingdale, the Conservative chairman of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, has since spoken about BBC spending on hospitality: “It does beg the question as to whether it is really necessary for the BBC to commit that amount of money . . . ”
That comment is worse, far worse, than the offence committed by the Lib Dems. Whittingdale’s use of begging the question is merely mistaken; adding to it “as to whether” is stilted and unnecessary. The two little words “as to” often appear before an interrogative (who, what, when, whether, why, how). They are always ugly and almost always redundant. Where they do serve some purpose, they can and should be replaced by the direct and idiomatic “about” or “on”.
Examples of this plague abound.Here is Alex Massie in The Spectator:“I argued that people can disagree in good faith on the question as to whether Kenny MacAskill was correct to let Abdul Baset Ali al-Megrahi return to Libya to die.” In a book review in the Telegraph, Anthony Howard writes that “the question has to remain open as to whether [the book] was worth all the research its author has obviously put into it”.
A football correspondent for The Guardian writes: “The question was put to Wenger as to whether the dressing room had found fresh spirit.”
Let me explain as to what is wrong with all this. Arsne Wenger was asked: “Has the dressing room found fresh spirit?” He was, therefore, asked the question whether the dressing room had found fresh spirit. It would be better still to say: Arsne Wenger was asked whether the dressing room had found fresh spirit. This is entirely proper usage, and it is simpler than the Guardian’s report. There is no need for “as to”, let alone “the question as to”.
The objection to “as to” is usually stylistic rather than grammatical.
But it is bad style. When, in Matthew’s Gospel, the high priest spoke to Jesus, he did not say: “I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us as to whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God.”
thepedant@thetimes.co.uk