promissive
English
editAdjective
editpromissive (comparative more promissive, superlative most promissive)
- Making or implying a promise; promising.
- 1844, Edward Polhill, The Divine Will Considered in Its Eternal Decrees, page 191:
- I answer, that the word may be considered under a double notion, either as it is operative of faith, or as it is promissive of rest to believers: take it as operative of faith, and so it profits, not being mixed with faith, otherwise faith could not come by hearing, as the apostle asserts, (Rom. x. 17); but take it as promissive of rest to believers, and so it doth not profit, not being mixed with faith; that is, faith, which is the condition of the promise, not being performed, the eternal rest, which is the thing promised, cannot belong to them: and this is clearly the apostle's meaning;
- 1847, John Johnson, Theological Works, page 136:
- The performing of the promises cancelled the promissive words; for if they were yet promissive, then what was promised is not performed; this was promised by certain signs. Those promissive signs are cancelled, because the promissive Verity is exhibited.
- 1977, Mitsubishi Kasei Seimei Kagaku Kenkyūjo, Annual Report - Volume 6, page 48:
- The group of substnces which binds and effects the physiology of the biomembrane is promissive in relation with its effect against cancer, on immune system, cell differentiation and aging.
- (grammar) Implying that the speaker intends to do something or guarantees something.
- 1862, Robert Gordon Latham, The English Language, page 622:
- Changing the expression—shall is predictive, and will is promissive in the first person only; whereas, in the second and third, will is predictive, and shall promissive.
- 2019, EunHee Lee, Korean Syntax and Semantics, page 116:
- As we will see, Korean also has promissive and propositive speech act sentence particles, which encode commitment and suggestion, respectively, and exclamative/mirative, indicating a surprise.
- 2021, R. G. Latham, The English Language:
- Shall is simply predictive; will is predictive and promissive as well.
Noun
editpromissive (plural promissives)
- (grammar) A promissive mood, phrase, word, or inflection.
- 2018, Simeon Floyd, Elisabeth Norcliffe, Lila San Roque, Egophoricity, page 427:
- The promissive presumably belongs with informant subjects because we can assert a special kind of commitment concerning our own future actions; or, in a question, ask for this commitment from the addressee.
- 2018, Jiun-Shiung Wu, Intensification and Modal Necessity in Mandarin Chinese:
- The answer to the first question is negative: yídìng cannot express strong epistemic necessity in an imprative or a promissive.
- 2019, Korean, Ho-min Sohn:
- In addition to the four major sentence types, there are minor sentence types which are marked by distinct sentence-enders, in particular, promissive, apperceptive, exclamative, and premonitive.