Subjectivity and Subjectivisation Linguistic Perspectives

This study reflects the growing attention in linguistics and related disciplines commanded by the centrality in language of the speaker.

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 in language of the speaker. 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 their phenomena on the formal shape of discourse. This volume demonstrates how deeply embedded in linguistic expression subjectivity is, and how central to human discourse.

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 Laurel Brinton; 10. From empathetic deixis to empathetic narrative: stylisation and (de)-subjectivisation as processes of language change Sylvia Adamson; Indexes.

This volume reflects the growing attention in linguistics and related disciplines commanded by the centrality in language of the speaker. The contributors offer a series of studies on grammatical, diachronic and literary aspects of subjectivity and subjectivization, from perspectives including literary stylistics, historical linguistics and formal semantics.