The comprehension of the Minimum Distance Principle was examined in three experiments, using the "tell/promise" sentence construction. Experiment one compared the listening and reading comprehension of singly presented sentences, e.g. "John tells Bill to bake the cake" and "John promises Bill to bake the cake." The comprehension question asked for the subject of the infinitive complement clause, e.g. "Who bakes the cake?" Subjects were 96 third, fourth, and fifth graders. A significant positive relationship was found between reading skill level and performance on this task. Reading skill level was a better predictor of "Promise" performance than were age or IQ. Experiment two investigated the effect of the composition of the experimental presentation list on performance by comparing comprehension when the list contained only "promise" or only "tell" sentences with that obtained when the list contained both types of sentences. For half the subjects, performance differed as a function of the list composition. In experiment three, the sentences were embedded in a paragraph context. Comprehension of "promise" sentences was better in context than in isolation. Implications of these studies for the assessment of the development of language competence are discussed. (Author)