Why can I not use "beg the question" to mean "raise the question" grammatically?
Solution 1:
Here's the thing: using "beg the question" as an alternative to "raise the question" could be correct, but only if language and grammar consisted entirely of the addition of the literal values of words (aka: looking at each word and its meaning, they are the same). However, language contains a number of pre-set combinations of words whose meanings are different from the individual words — in this case, "beg the question." What that means is that "beg the question" should be taken like a singular unit of meaning, with the only meaning being the logical fallacy.