because of mental illness

[navi tasan]

Are these sentences correct:

1) They fired him because of mental illness.
2) Her application was rejected by them because of mental illness.

I suppose context would make it clear who was mentally ill. One would assume that 'he' and 'she' were mentally ill, but I think in theory the sentences are ambiguous.

 

[jutfrank]

Yes, it could also be that 'they' were, or had at some point been, or even will at some point be, mentally ill.

Given the empty determiner slot in the noun phrase mental illness, it could also be that a third unknown party was mentally ill, or even that none of the parties involved were mentally ill, but just that mental illness in some abstract and mystifying way was the cause of the the firing and rejection.

I'm reluctant to say these sentences are ambiguous. I'd prefer to say they're badly written and unclear. Vagueness and ambiguity are not the same thing.

This is a properly ambiguous sentence:

He fired him because he was mentally ill.

Although it's ambiguous, it's likely to be interpreted that it was the person being fired who was mentally ill. This interpretation comes from our experience and understanding of the way the world normally works rather than from the grammar and vocabulary. When we interpret, we're wholly concerned with speaker meaning, not with sentence meaning. It's not only context (by 'context' I mean the other words and sentences around the sentence) that contributes to speaker meaning, it's also our assumptions about the world.

 

[emsr2d2]

Note that the terms "mentally ill" and "mental illness" are not used much anymore. We tend to use things like "problems with his/her mental health" and similar.