promissive

English

Adjective

promissive (comparative more promissive, superlative most promissive)

1. 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.

2. (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

promissive (plural promissives)

1. (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.

Anagrams

• improvises