promise · English

Promiser, Promisee, Theme, propositional complement · English marking · working claim, revisable

promise. The commitment sense. The Promiser is the subject. The Promisee is a bare indirect object, the first object of the double-object frame, or to plus a DP. The Theme is one DP. The propositional complement is a that-clause, with or without a Promisee, or a to-infinitive. Oxford Advanced Learner’s prints both orders of one Theme: He promised his grandchildren the money and He promised the money to his grandchildren. Cambridge marks Her parents promised her a new car if she passed her exams as “[ + two objects ]” and prints I've promised it to Sara. Merriam-Webster’s examples print Promise me that you won't tell anyone and She promised to announce the results tomorrow.

The Promisee can stand with the that-clause, and the that-clause can stand without a spelled Promisee. Cambridge: Promise me (that) you won't tell him and The government have promised that they'll reduce taxes. Oxford: You promised me (that) you’d be home early tonight and The brochure promised (that) the local food would be superb. Merriam-Webster: I can't promise you that I'll be able to go and The governor promised that the prisoners would receive a fair trial. The Theme DP can stand with no Promisee. Merriam-Webster: International organizations have promised aid. Oxford: The government has promised a full investigation into the disaster. Wiktionary: He promised me a big kiss if I would drive him to the airport.

The to-infinitive in the dictionaries opened here stands without a Promisee. Cambridge: He promised faithfully to call me every week. Oxford: The college principal promised to look into the matter and ‘Promise not to tell anyone!’ Merriam-Webster: I promise to be careful. Wiktionary: If you promise not to tell anyone, I will let you have this cake for free and She promised to never return to this town again. A Promisee beside that infinitive is a different frame, below. The intransitive pledge has neither Theme nor clause. Oxford: ‘But you promised!’ Merriam-Webster: ‘Yes, I promise.’

Subject control, when the Promisee and the infinitive are both there. I promised her to leave means the Promiser leaves. That is the opposite of object control with persuade and tell, where the object leaves. The learner dictionaries opened here do not print a Promisee beside a to-infinitive. They print the Promisee with a that-clause, and they print the to-infinitive alone. I promised her to leave is constructed on the control discussion. It is not a dictionary citation. Larson 1991, “Promise and the theory of control,” Linguistic Inquiry 22, is the source named for that pattern. Visser’s generalization, as that discussion uses it: subject control resists passivization. She was promised to leave, on the reading that the Promiser leaves, is out. Rosenbaum’s Minimal Distance Principle is the related claim that the controller is the nearest noun. Promise is the exception: the Promiser controls across the Promisee.

A second sense, portend. No Promisee. Oxford sense 2, “to make something seem likely to happen”: It promises to be an exciting few days and There were dark clouds overhead promising rain. Cambridge, “promise to be good, exciting, etc.”: It promises to be a really exciting game. The American entry: The new movie promises to be one of the biggest money-makers of all time. Merriam-Webster transitive 4, “to suggest beforehand”: dark clouds promise rain. The examples block: Those gray skies promise rain. It promises to be hot reuses Oxford’s and Cambridge’s it promises to be pattern. It is constructed. The heat is not a pledge to a Promisee.

Copular coercion. The commitment sense is verb-built. The head is the verb promise. No be-construction builds it. It is promising is the adjective that goes with the noun’s “shows promise” reading. Cambridge’s noun line is he showed great promise. That adjective is not this verb’s arguments. In the portend line It promises to be an exciting few days, be sits inside the infinitive. The matrix head is still promises.

Where a translation frame diverges from this English gloss. Pointers only. Later entries fill them. English Wiktionary’s verb translation table names German versprechen, Spanish prometer, and Japanese 約束する. The shapes to fill, not clauses filed here: German versprechen takes a dative Promisee and a zu-infinitive with subject control. Spanish prometer takes the Promisee in a+DP. Japanese 約束する takes the partner with と, rather than a dative. No German, Spanish, or Japanese clause is constructed on this page.