Introduction

The notion of subjectification has arisen, and is mostly used, in the context of the study of semantic change through time (cf. Traugott 1989, this volume; Langacker 1990). My purpose in the present chapter is to apply the notion to certain phenomena of synchronic variation (in modern Dutch, but also observable in modern English) which look very similar to diachronic subjectification. In particular, I will examine the use of the predicates promise, threaten, and refuse in Dutch and English, focussing on the relation between descriptive (‘objective’) applications (as in He promised to defend the constitution) and modal (‘subjective’) uses (as in Thursday promises to be a very fine day. The incident threatened to ruin his chances).

Whereas some other chapters in this volume (for example, by Elizabeth Traugott and Kathleen Carey) discuss details of the conceptual content of subjectification, the aim of this chapter is to extend the scope of this notion to new domains. Therefore I will not be concerned here with distinctions between different construals of the notion of subjectification (important as the issue may be), but rather start from what they have in common.

I will try to show that an approach in terms of subjectification supplies us with a coherent conceptual framework for an integrated description of the use of the predicates mentioned above, provided that we are willing to take syntactic and discourse analytic considerations into account as well.