Meaning of 修士論文として提出しました論文を遅らせて頂きます


I'm trying to understand the meaning of this sentence:

> 修士論文として提出しました論文を遅らせて頂きます。

My best guess is "Please allow me to be late (sending?) this essay that I
submitted as my thesis."

I think where I'm getting tripped up is that I sense there is a verb lacking
in this sentence, and I think it might just be because I'm not understanding
something that is maybe insinuated in the original Japanese? The person who
wrote this sentence is asking for permission to do something late regarding
this essay, and I'm not sure if I'm just mistranslating something or am not
understanding something else.




I realized that whether this is a typo is irrelevant to your question, because
論文を遅らせて頂きます is a grammatically valid sentence and your question still stands.

[遅らせる](http://www.weblio.jp/content/%E9%81%85%E3%82%89%E3%81%9B%E3%82%8B) _is_
the verb — the act of making later. It
[translates](http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%E9%81%85%E3%82%89%E3%81%9B%E3%82%8B)
to verbs like _postpone_ or _delay_ , or more broadly, to push back to a later
date or time. This is different from “to be late” (=
[遅れる](http://ejje.weblio.jp/content/%E9%81%85%E3%82%8C%E3%82%8B)). So the
meaning is:

> 修士論文として提出しました論文を **遅らせて頂きます** 。  
>  Please allow me to [ **push back to a later date** ] the essay that I
> submitted as my Master's thesis.

Yes, it's probably talking about postponing the submission of the essay. But
the sentence is not “lacking” a verb. You can certainly add in more verbs
though, like how レッスンを遅らせる (push back the lesson) can become レッスンを始めるのを遅らせる
(push back the starting of a lesson), or 食事を遅らせる (push back the meal) can
become 食事をとるのを遅らせる (push back the taking of a meal).

I see how the 〜させて頂きます is confusing. Here is how they correspond:

  * 送る → 送らせて頂きます (allow me to send)
  * 遅らせる → 遅らせて頂きます (allow me to postpone)
  * 遅れる → 遅れさせて頂きます (allow me to be late)




Either it's a typo like the comments said, or if it's not a typo, then perhaps
"I've submitted it as a Master degree thesis. As for the paper/journal, pardon
me but it'll be late", something like that. Maybe the person is saying that
for the thesis it's ok, he had already sent it; but for journal paper maybe
it'll need more work and time to revise. I don't know if this is sent by your
supervisor or directly have any connection to you, but if that's so, I suggest
you to ask the person directly, because this sounds like an important matter
to you.

