Kibbitzer 50

Pose


This Kibbitzer is based on the thesis of a Chinese-speaking postgrduate student of metallurgy:

OriginalRevisions
Heavy metals can pose acute, chronic and latent toxicities or inhibitory effects in living organisms ... Heavy metals can create acute, chronic and latent toxicities or inhibitory effects in living organisms ...
Heavy metals can pose problems of acute, chronic and latent toxicities or inhibitory effects in living organisms ...

What attracted attention in the original drafting was the collocation between pose and the nouns toxicities and effects. A quick check (confirmed later by a more extensive search) indicated that pose takes as objects a limited set of general nouns within a restricted semantic field, notably threat, problem, and question:

 1 g that governments can and often do, pose a threat to individual liberty, there is anoth
 2  now aims to find all asteroids that pose a definite threat to life on Earth. If one is 
 3 NER says the centre's management is "posing a serious threat to its future".  The centre
 4 explosive eruptions. These volcanoes pose a significant threat to human life. They also 
 5 ey aree likely to follow. The threat posed by malaria is especially worrying. The diseas
 6 says the material found in Frankfurt posed no threat to the public because it was packag
 7                Saturated fats do not pose a problem for all creatures, according to Amer
 8 where. Technology in modern medicine poses special problems. There are, and always have 
 9 non of pattern formation. Patterning poses the problem of how the cells know what to do,
10 ther attempts, and some patients who pose very difficult management problems. A case has
11 the most difficult ethical questions posed by medical science are dealt with by the bill
12 . Moreover, their ideas about how to pose the fundamental questions of cognitive science
13  1986 Lake Nyos explosion, but sadly posed yet more questions. The phenomenon of inverte
14  to improve evaluations of the risks posed by warehouses which store toxic chemicals. Re
15 A as a rapidly rotating neutron star poses a challenge to models of nuclear matter. The 
16 ials sometimes overstate the dangers posed by hackers, who are often teenagers engaging 
We could find no examples of nouns denoting specific problems such as toxicity, nor any examples of nouns outside the semantic area of problem such as effect.

In the light of this evidence, it appeared appropriate to redraft the original. Two strategies seemed possible:


22nd October 1998 Consultant: Tim Johns
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