Promiser, Promisee, Theme, propositional complement · French marking · working claim, revisable
promettre. The commitment sense. Larousse, transitive sense 1, “S'engager à donner quelque chose à quelqu'un,” prints Tu m'as promis un cadeau. Sense 2, “S'engager à faire quelque chose,” prints Il a promis d'être exact au rendez-vous. Le Robert prints the three complements on one line: Il lui a promis son aide, de l'aider, qu'il l'aiderait. The Académie, ninth edition, on the CNRTL, prints On leur a promis la vie sauve and, under Intransitif, Il a promis de venir me voir. The Promiser is the nominative subject: tu, il, on. The Promisee is a dative clitic, m', lui, leur, or à plus a DP. The TLFi syntagm is promettre la vie sauve à qqn, and Barante prints promettre des indulgences à ceux qui s'armeraient. Thierry prints auquel il promit par serment une paix inviolable et une sincère amitié. auquel is à plus the relative. The Theme, when it is a noun, is one direct-object DP: un cadeau, son aide, la vie sauve, une récompense in Le Robert’s On leur promet une récompense.
Dative or à, not a second bare object. The person stands in a dative clitic or under à. m' in Tu m'as promis un cadeau, lui in Il lui a promis son aide, and leur in On leur a promis la vie sauve are dative. à ceux and auquel are the full-noun clothes of that same person. A bare person before the thing, the shape of English promise her a book, is unprinted in the commitment lines cited here. It is not filed. de in the commitment infinitive is the infinitive marker, d'être exact, de l'aider, de venir. It is not the mark of the Promisee. The accusative clitics of a direct-object Theme are le, la, and les. No entry cited here prints that clitic beside lui or leur. Il le lui a promis reuses the accusative of un cadeau and the dative of Il lui a promis son aide. It is constructed. With a third-person Promisee the accusative clitic precedes lui or leur.
de+infinitive, subject control. Il a promis d'être exact au rendez-vous has no spelled Promisee. The one who is to be punctual is il, the Promiser. Il lui a promis de l'aider spells the Promisee and the infinitive on Le Robert’s line. The one who helps is il. lui is helped: l' is the object of aider. lui is not the helper. That is subject control. The TLFi prints the dative and the infinitive together in the imperative: Promettez-moi d'exécuter mes dernières volontés (Verne). The one who is to carry out the wishes is vous, the Promiser. moi does not carry them out. Il a promis de venir me voir, Académie, has no Promisee of promettre. me is the object of voir. The one who comes is il. Il m'a promis de venir reuses the dative of Tu m'as promis un cadeau and the infinitive of de venir. It is constructed. On the control claim, il comes. m' does not.
que-clause. The mood of the pledge is future or conditional. Larousse, under Difficultés, “Promettre que (+ futur ou conditionnel),” prints Je te promets qu'il n'ira pas and il m'a promis qu'il ne dirait rien, and calls that use correct and current. n'ira is future. dirait is conditional. The finite verb has its own subject. In qu'il n'ira pas that subject is il, not the Promiser je. Le Robert’s qu'il l'aiderait is conditional, and on that line the subject of aiderait is the Promiser. The Académie prints Je vous promets qu'il reviendra, future, under the extension “garantir, affirmer.” The TLFi prints me promettait que nous irions voir (Proust), conditional, and il leur promit que le duc de Guyenne s'armerait (Barante), conditional. Larousse’s other note, “Promettre que (+ présent ou passé),” is the familiar affirmation, not the pledge of a later act: Je vous promets que c'est vrai. c'est is present indicative. The entries cited here do not print a subjunctive in a que-clause of promettre. No subjunctive complement is filed. Il m'a promis qu'il viendrait reuses the dative and the conditional of il m'a promis qu'il ne dirait rien. viendrait is not that citation. It is constructed.
A separate sense, to give reason to expect. No Promisee on the infinitive. Larousse, transitive sense 3, “Laisser présager quelque chose,” prints La séance promet d'être houleuse. The subject of être houleuse is la séance. Nobody is pledged to. Ce film promet d'être long reuses that de+être pattern. film and long are not the printed words. It is constructed. The same sense with a direct object and a dative of the person who hears the forecast is the Académie, sense 2: Ces nuages nous promettent de la pluie. Le Robert prints La météo nous promet du beau temps pour demain and Ce nuage ne promet rien de bon. Larousse, transitive sense 4, is a different à: “Destiner quelqu'un à un avenir,” Ses récents succès le promettent à une brillante carrière. le is the person destined. à une brillante carrière is the future. That à is not a Promisee, and le is not a Theme of a gift.
Intransitive, shows promise. No Promisee and no Theme. The Académie, sense 2, Absolument, “Donner à espérer,” prints Cet enfant promet and Les blés promettent beaucoup cette année. Larousse, intransitive sense 1, prints Un jeune auteur qui promet. Le Robert prints Un enfant, un début qui promet. The TLFi cites the Académie line Cet enfant promet and Il promettait beaucoup dans sa jeunesse. Larousse, intransitive sense 2, familier, is the other absolute: Pour son âge, cet enfant promet !, glossed as relations that will be harder. That line is still intransitive. It is not the pledge.
Control and the séance line. Working claim, revisable. In the commitment de-infinitive, the understood subject is the Promiser. A dative Promisee can be there, and that Promisee is not the one who acts. In La séance promet d'être houleuse, Larousse sense 3, there is no Promisee, and la séance is what être houleuse is about. The séance is not a person who pledges. The working claim is that this is a raising, evidential use: the matrix subject is the subject of the infinitive, and the verb does not report a pledge to a dative. The dictionaries do not use the word raising. They split the sense, and they print no Promisee on this infinitive. Cet enfant promet has a human subject and is still the absolute “shows promise” line. No Promisee and no infinitive are printed on it. A human subject does not by itself make that line the commitment frame.
Two reflexives, and a reciprocal. They are not the Promisee of a pledge to someone else. Larousse, se promettre sense 2, “Se jurer de faire quelque chose,” prints Je m'étais bien promis de ne rien dire. The Académie glosses Se promettre de as “prendre la résolution de” and prints Je me suis promis de lui dire la vérité and Elles se sont promis de ne plus retourner dans cette maison. Le Robert prints Elle s'est promis d'essayer. Larousse’s agreement note says the participle stays invariable when the direct object is the infinitive: elle s'est promis de réussir. se on that line is indirect. The TLFi files the same resolve as Elle se promettait d'économiser (Flaubert). The other se takes a thing. Larousse sense 1, “Avoir le ferme espoir d'avoir quelque chose,” prints Je me promettais beaucoup de plaisir de cette rencontre. The Académie prints Je ne me promets aucun bénéfice de cette démarche. Le Robert prints Les joies qu'il s'était promises, and the participle agrees with joies. The thing hoped for is the direct object. de cette rencontre is the source. The reciprocal is the Académie, “Les époux se promettent fidélité,” and Le Robert, Elles se sont promis de se revoir.
Copular coercion. Working claim, revisable. The commitment sense is verb-built. The head is promettre. No copula builds that pledge in the entries cited here. être inside d'être exact, and inside d'être houleuse, belongs to the infinitive. The matrix head is still promettre. Larousse enters être promis as a passive. Sense 1, “Avoir été donné en promesse,” prints Chose promise, chose due. That is the Theme of a pledge, as a passive. Sense 2, “Être voué dans l'avenir à quelque chose,” prints Enfant promis à un bel avenir. That is the destined reading, être promis à. It is the same future as the active le promettent à une brillante carrière. It is not the commitment frame rebuilt as être plus an adjective. The engagement line in the agreement note is elle s'est promise à un jeune homme: se is the direct object, and the participle agrees. That is not être plus an adjective of the pledge. s'engager à is a different verb. Larousse, on engager, prints Il s'est engagé à payer ses dettes dans les huit jours. à there marks the infinitive. There is no dative Promisee.
Where this frame diverges from the English gloss, and from Spanish prometer and German versprechen. English promise her a book is a bare double object. Cambridge’s printed line of that order, on the English page, is promised her a new car. French Tu m'as promis un cadeau puts the person in a dative clitic and the thing in one direct object. A full noun Promisee is à+DP, as in à ceux qui s'armeraient. The Promisee is obligatorily prepositional or dative. English to his grandchildren is the other clothes of the Promisee, and English also allows the bare person. French does not print the bare person. English learner dictionaries print the to-infinitive. French prints de+infinitive: d'être exact, de l'aider, de venir. The que-clause of the pledge is future or conditional indicative. The familiar affirmation is present indicative. The Spanish page’s que-clause is indicative when the pledge is affirmed, and subjunctive in a consultation when the pledge is negated. No subjunctive line is printed in these French entries. Spanish Me prometió un regalo also puts the person in a dative, and doubles a full noun with a+DP. The French lines cited here spell the clitic or the à-phrase, not both on one line. German ich verspreche dir meine Unterstützung spells a bare dative, and zu marks the infinitive. French de marks the infinitive of promettre, and à marks the Promisee. German sich verpflichten takes zu. Spanish comprometerse a plus an infinitive has no dative Promisee. French s'engager à is that near frame.