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I used lead and deadly as the ambiguities because they both can have different meaning. But I'm not sure how to explain how they can have different meaning in this sentence and how to restructure this sentence to make it right.

"Consider the sentence, "Diabetes can lead to deadly heart problems." Identify and explain any two ambiguities associated with the sentence."

David G. Stork
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Kifayat
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  • Hiking on a trail along a river can lead to being hit by lightening. This sentence, like your sentence, isn't very informative because neither explains the likelihood of the deadly consequences. Your sentence also may be taken by some to imply a causal connection, but that is not very clearly stated. – amWhy Nov 17 '18 at 18:53
  • "... can lead to" is what I'd say is what is the most ambiguous. But what counts as "deadly heart problems" is also quite vague. – amWhy Nov 17 '18 at 18:56

1 Answers1

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English is a very sloppy language. There are many ambiguities in the statement. Some of them are more obviously absurd than others.

  • "Diabetes" could refer to my pet dog Diabetes.
  • "can lead to" is extremely vague. Does it imply a factual causal link ("if you have diabetes, then your diabetes may cause your heart to become faulty") or a roundabout route ("if you have diabetes, then you will take insulin, which will cause heart problems"), or a correlation ("if you have diabetes, then this is an indication that you are genetically predisposed to get heart disease later"), or any one of a number of other things?
  • "Deadly heart problems" could mean that my heart problems are deadly to others (if I'm a pilot and my arrhythmia makes me feel faint), or that they're deadly to myself.
  • "Deadly heart problems" can mean "problems with my deadly heart" (perhaps my heart contains lots of vitamin A which is poisonous when consumed).

If you're interested in this kind of thing, I recommend studying the grammar of the constructed language Ithkuil, which is really precise about lots of things which English simply leaves to context.

Patrick Stevens
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