Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- 1 Subjectivity and subjectivisation: an introduction
- 2 The epistemic weil
- 3 Subjectification in grammaticalisation
- 4 Emphatic and reflexive -self: expectations, viewpoint, and subjectivity
- 5 Subjectification and the development of the English perfect
- 6 Subjectification, syntax, and communication
- 7 Subjective meanings and the history of inversions in English
- 8 Subjectivity and experiential syntax
- 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
- Subject index
- Name index
7 - Subjective meanings and the history of inversions in English
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- 1 Subjectivity and subjectivisation: an introduction
- 2 The epistemic weil
- 3 Subjectification in grammaticalisation
- 4 Emphatic and reflexive -self: expectations, viewpoint, and subjectivity
- 5 Subjectification and the development of the English perfect
- 6 Subjectification, syntax, and communication
- 7 Subjective meanings and the history of inversions in English
- 8 Subjectivity and experiential syntax
- 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
- Subject index
- Name index
Summary
Purpose
The history of inversions in English is particularly relevant to the notions of subjectivity and subjectivisation, since several facets of these notions are directly involved in the meaning history of this syntactic structure. Some types of inversions in English have distinct ‘emotive’, ‘expressive’, ‘subjective’, or ‘discourse’ meanings, which historically have not always been attached to this syntactic structure. This chapter tries to analyse the mutual relationship of structural history and the history of the subjective meanings of inversions.
On subjectivity
In the literature at large and in the chapters in this volume there seem to be five notions of subjectivity and subjectivisation:
A general notion of subjectivity in the analysis of literature, such as expounded in the analysis of Tristram Shandy by Iser (1988). This is closely related to the concept of individualism. This concept is about the – predominantly literary and artistic – expression of subjective feelings and emotions. It is about the relationship of the artist and the subject of his message.
Related to 1: the language of such literature as the vehicle of expression in texts belonging to type 1 may be called ‘subjective’ to the extent that the flow of thought represented and the feelings communicated concern ‘emotions’ in the narrower sense. Subjective language and individualistic writing may not contain emotional language, such as expressing feelings like anger, joy, despair etc. The best common denominator is ‘expressive’ language in the speech-act sense.
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- Type
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- Information
- Subjectivity and SubjectivisationLinguistic Perspectives, pp. 129 - 150Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995
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