Learn English – What does sentence with “from … to … to …” exactly mean

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The whole sentence is:

Instead of handing down text-based documents from product managers to architects to design engineers to test engineers, and so forth, all of the people involved in the development process can access the data they
need transparently. (System engineering for dummies)

Does it mean "pass documents from manager to architects, and then from architects to engineers, and then from engineer to test engineers" OR it just mean "pass document from manager to everybody else"?

Best Answer

Does it mean "pass documents from manager to architects, and then from architects to engineers, and then from engineer to test engineers" OR it just mean "pass document from manager to everybody else"?

The former. "From A to B to C to D", with no commas, means "from A to B, from B to C, and from C to D", i.e. A → B → C → D.

But interestingly, the same sentence would become ambiguous if there were commas, because then there would be two possible structures that it could fit into:

  • "from A to B, to C, to D, to E" would mean the same as "from A to B to C to D to E", i.e. A → B → C → D → E.
    • the "and so forth" can fit in the "to E" slot.
  • "from A to B, to C, to D, and to E" would mean "from A to B, from A to C, from A to D, and from A to E", i.e. A → { B, C, D, E }.
    • the "and so forth" can fit in the "and to E" slot.

Without the commas, only the first structure is possible, because lists of the form "X, Y, and Z" require commas.

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