| 词组 | doubt |
| 释义 | doubt I The transitive verb doubt may take a clause as its object. The clause may be a sort of contact clause (which see) without a conjunction or a clause introduced by that, whether, or if: • Some cancer researchers doubt hyperthermia will ever emerge as a primary therapy —Walter L. Upde-grave, N.Y. Times Mag., 23 Mar. 1980 • There is nothing for it but to doubt such diseases exist —H. G. Wells (in Fowler 1907) • ... but I doubt that this represents a judgment of relative merit —Malcolm Cowley, New Republic, 22 Sept. 1941 • ... I doubt that this kind of disagreement produces many divorces —Elizabeth Janeway, Atlantic, March 1970 • ... I seriously doubt whether the stuff I give them makes anyone else feel good —And More by Andy Rooney, 1982 • I doubt if he had read a play of Shakespeare's even at the end of his life —The Autobiography of William Butler Yeats, 1953 • ... I doubt if one writer ever has a satisfactory conversation with another writer —William Faulkner, 16 May 1957, in Faulkner in the University, 1959 The clause that follows doubt could also in the past be introduced by but or but that, especially when the main clause is negative or interrogative; these constructions now seem to be rare with the verb, although we do have examples of but that with the noun. • ... I don't doubt but she may endure —Sir John Vanbrugh, The Relapse, 1696 • ... nor do we doubt but our reader ... will concur with us —Henry Fielding, Jonathan Wild, 1743 So far, things are reasonably simple. Now enter the usage writers, headed by Vizetelly 1906, who rejects doubt but that and prescribes doubt that. His comment may be the first evidence that the constructions with but are beginning to sound old-fashioned. Then come the brothers Fowler in 1907. They erect a set of three rules for the proper use of the verb that depend on the writer's considering the doubt reasonable, the writer's disapproving the doubt, or the writer's using the "vivid" whether. These rules have more than a whiff of excogitation about them, an observation borne out by two facts: Meredith, Trollope, Thackeray, and H. G. Wells are cited as bad examples (there are no good examples), and H. W. Fowler threw the whole treatment out in 1926 and did it over. Fowler's 1926 version begins by finding the use of that after doubt in a positive statement "contrary to idiom," a finding contradicted by the dozen or so examples he produces, all using that. He allows that when the main clause is negative or interrogative, but his real purpose seems to be to restore whether, the older of the two usages, in every possible instance. If the OED evidence is representative, the use of that and if, the latter of which Fowler does not mention, began in the 19th century. It is perhaps a bit surprising that he does not endorse negative and interrogative but and but that, both of which are older constructions than the that construction he does allow. The doubt if construction ignored by Fowler was certainly established in everyday speech both in British and American English in the 19th century: • But never mind;—'God save the king!' and kings! For if he don't, I doubt if men will longer...—Lord Byron, Don Juan.Canto viii, 1823 • I doubt if I should trouble them if they did come — Henry Adams, letter, 7 June 1859 • ... and I doubt if she can be heard at all beyond that distance —Lewis Carroll, letter, 15 Jan. 1884 By the time Fowler gave his 1926 theories to the general public, there was already a separate American set of rules, as expressed in F. K. Ball's Constructive English ( 1923), for example. These were based on the following nuances: that (or if) could be used after doubt when there was no doubt; whether (or if) when there was a doubt. Over the course of time, the American rules and Fowler's rules became conflated. The ministrations of a couple of dozen commentators since Fowler have resulted in this contemporary consensus: 1. Use that for questions and negative sentences. 2. Use whether or if to express uncertainty. 3. Use that, even in positive statements, to express disbelief rather than uncertainty. You can follow these rules to guide your own practice if you want to. But can you judge the practice of others by them? No. The reason is simple: to know whether uncertainty or disbelief is intended, you must have either a clearly indicative context or an almost clairvoyant knowledge of an author's intentions. For instance, the usage panel of Heritage 1969 was given no more than "I doubt that he will come" for comment. In order to elicit an opinion, it was necessary to gloss the sentence to indicate that it was supposed to express genuine doubt. One cannot tell the intention from the sentence itself. And such is the case with the great majority of our citations. But the point to remember is this: you need not pay any attention to the rules to understand these writers: • I doubted at first whether I should attempt the creation of a being like myself, or one of simpler organization —Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, 1818 • Ben is here seeking a family, but I doubt if he gets what he wants —Henry Adams, letter, 22 Apr. 1859 • Pessimists doubt that the United Nations will be able to resolve the problems that face them —Vera Micheles Dean, The Four Cornerstones of Peace, 1946 • ... I doubt very much if they will last the season through —Stella Harrison, in Canadian Forum, June 1952 • I doubt myself whether this would have made much difference—Quintin Hogg, Times Literary Supp., 22 Jan. 1970 • It was quite wonderful that she should ... never have doubted that it would occur —Louis Auchin-closs, A Law for the Lion, 1953 • ... Jordanian and Israeli army officers doubt that the systems they live within do provide means for peaceful change —Commonweal, 9 Oct. 1970 • The house is furnished but they ask me to buy dishes and carpets, or bring these with me which I doubt if I can do —Robert Frost, letter, 16 July 1921 • Nor did mediaeval logic doubt that its processes could elucidate and express the veritable natures of things —Henry O. Taylor, The Mediaeval Mind, 4th ed., 1925 • In his thirty-eight years as a critic I doubt if he ever wrote a single paragraph that was not carefully planned —Deems Taylor, Music to My Ears, 1949 We would conclude that that is used when the main clause is negative; that also seems to be picked for use with a third-person subject more often than whether and But most of our examples have a first-person subject, and in those sentences the writers seem to pick if that, or whether according to personal preference. See also if 1. II 1. A few commentators drag the noun doubt into the morass of rules propounded for the verb. This is a mistake. The noun, when followed by a clause, may take a clause introduced by any of the conjunctions used for the verb: • ... there is little doubt that strategic nuclear weapons would be used —I. F. Stone's Bi-Weekly, 8 Mar. 1971 • ... there was no doubt that the King would return —Current Biography 1950 • ... some doubt whether the view... through a Russian prism may not sometimes have a distorting effect—Times Literary Supp., 1 Dec. 1966 • ... the expression of some doubt if very many citizens will ever read all of these 949 pages —Elmer Davis, Saturday Rev., 20 May 1939 • ... no fair-minded person can be left in any doubt but that the murder was planned —Leonard Scha-piro, London Calling, 15 July 1954 • There can be no doubt but many men have been named and painted great who were vastly smaller than he —Thomas Carlyle, London and Westminster Rev., 1838 2. Doubt, whether as a singular or a plural, is followed idiomatically by a number of prepositions: • ... if there was any doubt about his condition — Daphne du Maurier, Ladies' Home Jour., August 1971 • ... had some doubts about sending this boy on a man's job —Ellen Lewis Buell, N. Y. Times Book Rev., 16 May 1954 • ... in Bolshevik theory the slightest doubt of the regime is interpreted as bitter enmity —New Republic, 17 Mar. 1952 • ... so that all who could vote might be under no doubt of the road to reward —J. H. Plumb, England in the Eighteenth Century, 1950 • ... Byron's ... may have been intended for some other woman, but there is no doubt over Shelley's — Times Literary Supp., 3 July 1969 • There is no doubt as to the accuracy of his portrayal —Klaus Lambrecht, New Republic, 2 June 1941 |
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