Example sentences:
- I don’t drink bleach very often.
- Why does one plus one equal three?
The first sentence seems to suggest that I do drink bleach occasionally, even though from a strictly logically perspective, “never” drinking bleach meets the criteria of “not very often” too.
The second sentence can’t be answered because it presumes that 1+1=3.
Maybe the two sentences don’t have the same sort of problem, but in either case, I’m wondering if there is a word for describing these sort of misleading statements.
Answer
The first thing that popped into my head was non sequitur—except that doesn’t actually apply.
After consideration, I think those sentences are good examples of double-talk:
[Merriam-Webster]
1 : language that appears to be earnest and meaningful but in fact is a mixture of sense and nonsense
While it’s possible that somebody actually does drink bleach on occasion, a more natural interpretation is that the question is being asked as a kind of "put on", and is an example of something that only sounds meaningful at first.
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : wale , Answer Author : Jason Bassford