A little clarification for those who use "doubt" and "question" (as nouns)
interchangeably:
Question: an interrogative expression often used to test knowledge; an interrogative sentence or clause
Doubt: uncertainty of belief or opinion that often interferes with decision-making; a deliberate suspension of judgment
Seems to most commonly be mistaken by asian-language speakers... perhaps the concepts overlap more completely in asian languages.
Re:Been there, tried to do that
slanning on 2007-06-22T09:24:30
From the last comment in that thread, it seems that this meaning of "doubt" is commonly used in Indian English. I don't see any reason, then, why the usage is "incorrect" any more than, say, all the differences in meanings of the words between British and American English.
I doubt the helpfulness of comparing "question" and "doubt" directly.
a sentence of inquiry that asks for a reply
the state of being unsure of something
You seem to be objecting to assumptions about the state of mind behind a question. While a question certainly can be motivated by doubt arising from unfriendly distrust, it may also be motivated by lack of knowledge and a desire to learn. Of course there are many other possibilities, too.
From what dictionary are you citing these definitions, or did you write them based on your own understanding of these terms?
Defining "doubt" as something "that often interferes with decision-making" could be interpreted as negative editorializing, implying that that sort of doubt is bad. If someone refuses to make a decision because of well-founded skepticism or lack of critical knowledge, that's almost always a good thing.
Re:Doubt and Decision-Making
jtrammell on 2007-06-25T17:15:50
Those definitions came from m-w.com (in this context I looked at the noun definitions).My motivation for this post is my experience with English speakers of Indian extraction using these terms interchangeably; I've never seen it with other ethnicities, Asian or otherwise. This is entirely a nitpicky post, and I have no illusions that it will affect anyone's decision to speak English more clearly.
In my own parlance, a question is a statement used to elicit information from someone: I asked her a question. A doubt is a disbelief one holds about something such as an idea or a person: I doubt you have researched this. The two words have quite distinct meanings, one being external and one being an internal state, possibly not even expressed.
Using them interchangeably (as several of my professors have done in the past) is sloppy, in my opinion.
To pursue this particular stream of consciousness, I've noticed something similar to "cargo-cult programming"--call it "cargo-cult speaking"--where one "copies and pastes" verbiage learned from elsewhere without reflecting on it. This is also related to the phenomenon of "programming by coincidence". Perhaps I'll develop this topic further in some future blog post.
