Subjectivity and Subjectivisation: Linguistic Perspectives

by Edited by Dieter Stein , Susan Wright

• ISBN13: 9780521470391
• ISBN10: 0521470390
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1996-01-26
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The notion of subjectivity explored here concerns expression of self and the representation of a speaker's perspective or point of view in discourse. Subjectivization involves the structures and strategies that languages evolve in the linguistic realization of subjectivity and the relevant processes of linguistic evolution themselves. This volume reflects the growing attention in linguistics and related disciplines commanded by the centrality of the speaker in language. An international team of contributors offers a series of studies on grammatical, diachronic, and literary aspects of subjectivity and subjectivization, from a variety of perspectives including literary stylistics, historical linguistics, formal semantics, and discourse analysis. The essays look at the role of the perspective of locutionary agents, their expression of affect and modality in linguistic expressions and discourse, and the effects of these phenomena on the formal shape of discourse. This volume demonstrates how deeply embedded in linguistic expression subjectivity is, and how central to human discourse.

Table of Contents

1. Subjectivity and subjectivisation: an introduction Edward Finegan

2. The epistemic weil Rudi Keller

3. Subjectification in grammaticalisation Elizabeth Closs Traugott

4. Emphatic and reflexive-self: expectations, viewpoint and subjectivity Suzanne Kemmer

5. Subjectification and the development of the English perfect Kathleen Carey

6. Subjectification, syntax, and communication Arie Verhagen

7. Subjective meanings and the history of inversions in English Dieter Stein

8. Subjectivity and experiential syntax Susan Wright

9. Non-anaphoric reflexives in free indirect style: expressing the subjectivity of the non-speaker

10. From empathetic deixis to empathetic narrative: stylisation and de-subjectivisation as processes of language change Sylvia Adamson.