The circumstances in which promotion is possible

Promotion to subject is possible when there is some marker of the success of the activity. This marker can be an adverb, the negative particle, a modal, or emphatic do.

(a) Adverb. Only a small set of adverbs occur in promotion-to-subject constructions. They are based on adjectives from three semantic types: (i) SPEED—slowly, fast, quickly, rapidly, as in The bucket rapidly filled; (ii) VALUE—well, badly, properly, oddly, strangely (but not most other members of this type), e.g. I am afraid that this scene does not photograph well; (iii) DIFFICULTY—easily and the adverbial phrases with/without difficulty (there is no adverb *difficultly), e.g. These mandarins peel easily but those oranges peel only with great difficulty. All of these adverbs may also be used as comparatives, e.g. Datsuns sell quicker than Toyotas, Those tiles lay better if you wet them first.

(b) Negation. This can be used when the lack of success of some activity is imputed to the qualities of the referent of a non-subject role, e.g. That book didn’t sell. Not often co-occurs with the modal will, e.g. The middle house won’t let.

(c) Modal. Most modals may be the marker in a promotion-to-subject construction, e.g. Do you think this material will make up into a nice-looking dress? Yes, it must/should/ought to/might make up into a really stunning gown.

(d) Emphatic do. The semantic effect of do can be similar to that of an adverb like well, e.g. These red sports models do sell, don’t they?

The most common tense choice for promotion to subject is generic, e.g. That type of garment wears well. But past tense is also possible, as in (1b–d). Sometimes an adverb like well may be omitted when the construction is in generic tense, perhaps reinforced by an adverb such as always, e.g. I find that Easter eggs always sell (sc. well).

It must be emphasized that some marker from (a)–(d) is almost always obligatory if a non-subject role is to be promoted into subject slot, with the transitivity value of the sentence maintained. Sentences like *The new jug pours, *Sports cars sell, *The woollens washed are ungrammatical; but if something like well or don’t or won’t is added, then they become acceptable English sentences. Sell is one of the verbs most frequently used in promotion-to-subject constructions, and one does hear, with a definite subject, a sentence like Did those sports cars sell?; but most verbs always require a marker.

We mentioned that VALUE and DIFFICULTY adjectives—i.e. two of those types whose adverbs may assist promotion to subject—are used in a special construction in which what would be object of a complement clause functions as subject of the adjective. Alongside a regular Modal (FOR) TO construction such as It is easy (for anyone) to shock John we can have:

(2) John is easy to shock

Recall that although we may say That picture is good to look at—a construction parallel to (2) but involving a VALUE adjective—there are no corresponding sentences, with a closely similar meaning, that have a Modal (FOR) TO clause in subject relation. We can say It is good to look at that picture but this has a different meaning from That picture is good to look at.

Now compare (2) with the promotion-to-subject construction:

(3) John shocks easily

The two sentences have similar, but not identical, meanings: (2) would be preferred when someone deliberately sets out to shock John, and succeeds without any real difficulty (the someone could be mentioned by using the related construction, It was easy for Mary to shock John); (3) would be preferred if John just gets shocked at the mildest swear-word without anyone meaning to shock him (an ‘agent’ NP could not be included in (3)). The contrast between these construction types is less clear when the subject is inanimate, e.g. Porcelain sinks are easy to clean, and Porcelain sinks clean easily, but still the first sentence implies that some effort is required (although not so much as with other kinds of sink) while the second sentence suggests that one just has to wipe a cloth over and the job is done. With other adjective/adverb pairs the difference between constructions like (2) and those like (3) is even more obvious; These clothes are good to wash seems to imply that it’s fun washing them, a quite different meaning from These clothes wash well.

Promotion to subject is an even more marked construction than passive, and is used only when the nature of the referent of a non-subject NP is the major factor in the success of some instance of an activity. There has to be a contrast involved—some models of car sell quickly and others slowly, some types of woollens wash easily but others don’t.