Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > comp.lang.java.programmer > #7077

Re: Synchronization of the constructor

Show all headers | View raw

On 11-08-13 08:36 AM, Qu0ll wrote:
> "Robert Klemme"  wrote in message news:9an1a5F3rrU1@mid.individual.net...
> 
>> Btw, it's "question" and not "doubt".  Side note: I see this quite
>> often. Does anybody have an idea why non native speakers often use
>> "doubt" instead of "question"?  I'm not a native speaker myself but I
>> can't remember having mixed up the two.  So I guess it has to do with
>> the way English is taught or the mother tongue.
> 
> It's not confusion.  In some cultures, especially those from the
> subcontinent, "doubt" actually means something slightly different from
> Western cultures.  In those cultures it is used when something is not
> completely understood and embodies the question that results from that
> incomplete understanding.
> 
That would actually be a British or North American English meaning too.
"You're doubtful because you're uncertain" kind of thing. Or simply that
"you have doubts because you are uncertain". After all, in our wonderful
world of IT, you may say that you are doubtful not because you are
skeptical but only because something is unknown or unresolved.

Thing is that in Western English we tend to use "doubt", as a verb or
noun, in a restrictive sense that implies skepticism or a tendency
towards disbelief. So it becomes difficult to use the word to suggest
_uncertainty_, which is obviously still a valid use, and is what I think
all these other speakers mean. In fact I think their usage is becoming
an archaism in Western English. But it doesn't make their usage wrong.

Part of the problem too stems from a difference between standard and
Indian English as to the countability of the noun "doubt". In standard
English we have singular "doubt" and plural "doubts", but that doesn't
mean you can say you have two doubts or _a_ doubt. Apparently in Indian
English you can. They'd preserve the sense of what they are trying to
say, and immediately make themselves better understood to Western
English speakers, if they said "I have doubts...". With the caveat that
usually we garner a sense of disbelief or skepticism from that, where
none exists.

AHS

Back to comp.lang.java.programmer | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar

Thread

Synchronization of the constructor MaciekL <__nospam__maclab@o2.pl> - 2011-08-13 11:58 +0200
  Re: Synchronization of the constructor Robert Klemme <shortcutter@googlemail.com> - 2011-08-13 12:17 +0200
    Re: Synchronization of the constructor "Qu0ll" <Qu0llSixFour@gmail.com> - 2011-08-13 21:36 +1000
      Re: Synchronization of the constructor Arved Sandstrom <asandstrom3minus1@eastlink.ca> - 2011-08-13 09:30 -0300
    [OT] Natural language. Was: Re: Synchronization of the constructor Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-08-13 07:10 -0700
  Re: Synchronization of the constructor Eric Sosman <esosman@ieee-dot-org.invalid> - 2011-08-13 09:36 -0400
    Re: Synchronization of the constructor markspace <-@.> - 2011-08-13 08:13 -0700
      Re: Synchronization of the constructor Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-08-13 09:23 -0700
        Re: Synchronization of the constructor Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2011-08-13 10:04 -0700
          Re: Synchronization of the constructor Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-08-13 21:29 -0700
            Re: Synchronization of the constructor kedar mhaswade <kedar.mhaswade@gmail.com> - 2011-08-13 23:16 -0700
            Re: Synchronization of the constructor "Qu0ll" <Qu0llSixFour@gmail.com> - 2011-08-15 14:24 +1000
              Re: Synchronization of the constructor Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-08-14 23:03 -0700
      Re: Synchronization of the constructor kedar mhaswade <kedar.mhaswade@gmail.com> - 2011-08-13 23:12 -0700
        Re: Synchronization of the constructor markspace <-@.> - 2011-08-14 07:42 -0700
          Re: Synchronization of the constructor markspace <-@.> - 2011-08-14 07:51 -0700
            Re: Synchronization of the constructor Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2011-08-14 09:10 -0700
              Re: Synchronization of the constructor markspace <-@.> - 2011-08-14 11:28 -0700

csiph-web