usage of 'request'

[Phaedrus]

I agree. It sonds wrong. I'd use ask, not request.

I wonder how many people would find the following question ambiguous in the absence of context:

Whom did he request to paint?

Is whom functioning as the direct object of request or as the direct object of paint?

Is it presupposed that he requested someone to paint (a picture/the house) or that he requested to paint someone (with body paint)?

 

[emsr2d2]

I would take it as neither. I would read "Whom did he request to paint?" to mean "Who did he ask to be his model for a painting/portrait?"

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I would take it as neither. I would read "Whom did he request to paint?" to mean "Who did he ask to be his model for a painting/portrait?"

That's what I thought it meant, too.

To request means to ask for. We want to identify the person he asked for.

 

[Phaedrus]

That's what I thought it meant, too.

To request means to ask for. We want to identify the person he asked for.

That would actually be the other meaning. What Ems's answer indicates is that she parses it as "Whom did he request to paint __?" In other words, the parsing is that he asked to paint someone, and the speaker is asking for that person's identity.

Ems's parsing is not "Whom did he request ___ to paint?" In other words, the parsing is not that he asked (for) someone to paint, where the speaker is inquiring about the identity of that person. That said, this alternate parsing is also possible.

What Ems's reply reminded me is that "painting someone" can itself be interpreted in two ways. I agree that her interpretation is the likelier one.