doubt about doubt

[Bob Nelson]

I don't remember seeing the term ``doubt'' used much in c.l.c. back in the
90's. When did this word become nearly synonymous with ``question'' or
``query'' and does it have static duration?

 

[Michael Mair]

I don't remember seeing the term ``doubt'' used much in c.l.c. back in the
90's. When did this word become nearly synonymous with ``question'' or
``query'' and does it have static duration?

Well, as there are more and more participants from more and more
countries, you get more and more versions of "English". In this
case, the origin is India.
When the scope was clear, we worried more about semantics and
linkage than duration, though ;-)

Cheers
Michael

 

[Peter Nilsson]

I don't remember seeing the term ``doubt'' used much in c.l.c. back in the
90's. When did this word become nearly synonymous with ``question'' or
``query''

When western countries started outsourcing Y2K problems to Asian sub-
continent countries.

and does it have static duration?

N, s redy bng rplcd wt 'dbt'.

Shouldn't be long before it's just 'dt'. ;-)

 

[Keith Thompson]

I don't remember seeing the term ``doubt'' used much in c.l.c. back in the
90's. When did this word become nearly synonymous with ``question'' or
``query'' and does it have static duration?

It seems to be common usage in India.

 

[Richard Bos]

When western countries started outsourcing Y2K problems to Asian sub-
continent countries.

Specifically, the Indian subcontinent. I'm sure an influx of programmers
from the Arabian subcontinent would have brought its own linguistic
oddities, but this one seems to be mostly Indian.

Richard

 

[Richard Heathfield]

Bob Nelson said:

I don't remember seeing the term ``doubt'' used much in c.l.c. back in the
90's. When did this word become nearly synonymous with ``question'' or
``query''

Strangely, both nouns are commonly used as verbs without modification, and
the verb forms are fairly close in meaning, although by no means
synonymous. In the noun form, they are even less obviously associated, and
it's hard to see how anyone could learn them except from someone who had
already got them wrong. I suppose it's a bit like void main - someone
randomly used the one instead of the other, and was sufficiently
influential that their usage was adopted by others.

and does it have static duration?

Well, it certainly appears to lead to collisions!

 

[Bob Nelson]

Bob Nelson said:


Strangely, both nouns are commonly used as verbs without modification, and
the verb forms are fairly close in meaning, although by no means
synonymous. In the noun form, they are even less obviously associated, and
it's hard to see how anyone could learn them except from someone who had
already got them wrong. I suppose it's a bit like void main - someone
randomly used the one instead of the other, and was sufficiently
influential that their usage was adopted by others.

Steve Summit's release of the ``C-FAD-list'' appears unlikely.

 

[Default User]

I don't remember seeing the term ``doubt'' used much in c.l.c. back
in the 90's. When did this word become nearly synonymous with
``question'' or ``query'' and does it have static duration?

As others have noted, it's a dialect usage in India. There's an
expanding pool of beginning programmers in India, coupled with the new
Google interface to give them easier access to usenet.





Brian

 

[Mark McIntyre]

I don't remember seeing the term ``doubt'' used much in c.l.c. back in the
90's. When did this word become nearly synonymous with ``question'' or
``query'' and does it have static duration?

When lots of people speaking a different idiomatic version of English
began programming. Seems that in India "doubt" means "question".

--
Mark McIntyre

"Debugging is twice as hard as writing the code in the first place.
Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are,
by definition, not smart enough to debug it."
--Brian Kernighan

 

[blmblm]

When lots of people speaking a different idiomatic version of English
began programming. Seems that in India "doubt" means "question".

Also, I understand that whatever word is used in some non-English
languages to pose a question ("I have a question about .... ") is
one that in other contexts can be translated as "doubt", which may
explain why some non-native speakers of English use the unidiomatic
("I have a doubt about .... ") construction.

I've tried to pursue this in a couple of groups where such discussions
might be more on-topic, but not always with much success. I'll track
down specifics if anyone's really interested.

 

[Dik T. Winter]

> Also, I understand that whatever word is used in some non-English
> languages to pose a question ("I have a question about .... ") is
> one that in other contexts can be translated as "doubt", which may
> explain why some non-native speakers of English use the unidiomatic
> ("I have a doubt about .... ") construction.

I do not know any language where that is the case. But for non-native
speakers it is certainly the case that it is sometimes difficult to
remember the difference between words in English when such a difference
is non-existing in the native language. I have had my periods confusing
"to teach" and "to learn" when writing English (in Dutch they are a single
verb).

 

[blmblm]

I do not know any language where that is the case. But for non-native
speakers it is certainly the case that it is sometimes difficult to
remember the difference between words in English when such a difference
is non-existing in the native language. I have had my periods confusing
"to teach" and "to learn" when writing English (in Dutch they are a single
verb).

Strongly agreed (about difficulties with "foreign" languages)!
That is a whole subject in itself, but surely too far off-topic for
this group.

If anyone's curious, the language(s) mentioned when this subject came
up elsewhere were Italian and Spanish, though for Spanish apparently
you *can* say "I have a question", but people seem to prefer to say
"I have a doubt", as this is considered more polite, or something
(I wasn't able to completely understand what the person who made this
claim was getting at).

And the explanation floated here, that "I have a doubt" is standard
in English-as-spoken-in-India .... New information, very plausible,
much appreciated.