tlhIngan-Hol Archive: Fri Oct 08 05:58:22 2004

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Re: doubt (Re: tu'HomI'raH - canon source?

MorphemeAddict ([email protected]) [KLI Member] [Hol taghwI']

In a message dated 2004-10-08 8:38:24 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
[email protected] writes:

> >Uncertainty is the very essence of doubt.
> 
> It might be the cause, but it's not the manifestation. "I doubt that you=20
> speak Klingon" doesn't mean merely "I am uncertain whether you speak=20
> Klingon", but "I don't believe that you speak Klingon", usually with an=20
> overtone of "If otherwise is the case, then prove it." That's a bit stron=
> ger=20
> than simple uncertainty.
> 

Granted.  But you had said that uncertainty had nothing to do with doubt.  
Doubt always has some uncertainty, otherwise it's not doubt.  
In a more recent post of mine I gave a small spectrum of belief expressions.  
In English such a spectrum might be:
know (that something is true)
believe (that something is true)
not sure (that something is true)
doubt (that something is true) = believe that something is not true
know (that something is not true)

Only the first and last statements express certainty; the middle three all 
have some degree of uncertainty.
The overtone you mention may not be part of Klingon (although given the 
native language background of most of the speakers of Klingon, it probably is).

lay'tel SIvten

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