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On the Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity of Language

Received: 20 December 2019     Accepted: 2 January 2020     Published: 9 January 2020
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Abstract

When uttering a sentence, the speaker not only objectively expresses the propositional content of the sentence, but also conveys his views, feelings and attitudes toward the sentence. The speaker’s imprint is inherent in language. However, due to the dominance of structural linguistics and formal linguistics for a long time, “the speaker’s factor” in language has not been given due attention. With the advent of “linguistic turn” in the 20th century, language has become one of the objects of philosophical research and the significance of “the speaker’s factor” in language has attracted a host of scholars from philosophy, ethics, psychology, linguistics and many other disciplines. This paper firstly explores the mostly-acknowledged definition of subjectivity of language put forward by pioneering linguists, then discusses different approaches to the subjectivity of language from pragmatics, Relevance Theory, cognitive linguistics and Systemic Functional Grammar. Based on the previous research, the paper further explicates the speaker’s subjectivity from three aspects, viz. the speaker’s perspective, the speaker’s affect, and the speaker’s epistemic status. Lastly, the paper probes into the definition and development of intersubjectivity of language and points out that “the speaker’s factor” in language has been and will definitely be a vital topic in the future linguistic research.

Published in Communication and Linguistics Studies (Volume 6, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.cls.20200601.11
Page(s) 1-5
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Subjectivity, Speaker’s Perspective, Speaker’s Affect, Speaker’s Epistemic Status, Intersubjectivity

References
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[2] Bakhtin, M. 1981. The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays. M. Holquist (ed.). C. Emerson and M. Holquist (trans.). Austin: University of Texas Press.
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[9] Grice, H. P. 1975. Logic and conversation. In S. Davis (ed.). Pragmatics: A Reader. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 305-315.
[10] Halliday, M. A. K. 1994. An Introduction to Functional Grammar (2nd ed.). London: Edward Arnold.
[11] He Ziran, 2007, New Development in Pragmatics: Relevance, Adaptation, Memetics. Shanghai: Shanghai Education Press.
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[13] Jakobson, R. 1960. Linguistics and poetics. In T. A. Sebeok (ed.). Style in Language. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 350-377.
[14] Langacker, R. W. 1987. Foundation of Cognitive Grammar (Vol. 1): Theoretical Prerequisites. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
[15] Li Hongru, 2001, A study on the development of semantic theory from the logic and philosophical perspectives. Foreign Language Research (1): 31-38.
[16] Liu Jin, 2010. Perspective in Language Expression. Foreign Language Research (4): 40-43.
[17] Lyons, J. 1977. Semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[18] Lyons, J. 1995. Linguistic Semantics: An Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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[21] Nuyts, J. 2005. Modality: Overview and Linguistic Issues. In W. Frawley (ed.). The Expression of Modality. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
[22] Ochs, E and B. Schieffelin. 1989. Language has a heart. Text 9.1 (Special Issue on the pragmatics of affect). 7-25.
[23] Palmer, F. 1986. Mood and Modality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[24] Palmer, F. 1990. Modality and the English Modals (2nd ed). London: Longman.
[25] Palmer, F. 2001. Mood and Modality (2nd edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[26] Perkins, M. 1983. Modal Expressions in English. London: Frances Printer.
[27] Sanders, J. and G. Redeker. 1996. Perspective and the representation of speech and thought in narrative discourse. In G. Fauconnier and E. Sweetser (eds.) Spaces, Worlds and Grammar. Chicago/London: University of Chicago Press, 290-317.
[28] Schiffrin, D. 1990. The principle of intersubjectivity in communication and conversation. Semiotica 80: 121-151.
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    Li Feng. (2020). On the Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity of Language. Communication and Linguistics Studies, 6(1), 1-5. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20200601.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.cls.20200601.11,
      author = {Li Feng},
      title = {On the Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity of Language},
      journal = {Communication and Linguistics Studies},
      volume = {6},
      number = {1},
      pages = {1-5},
      doi = {10.11648/j.cls.20200601.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.cls.20200601.11},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.cls.20200601.11},
      abstract = {When uttering a sentence, the speaker not only objectively expresses the propositional content of the sentence, but also conveys his views, feelings and attitudes toward the sentence. The speaker’s imprint is inherent in language. However, due to the dominance of structural linguistics and formal linguistics for a long time, “the speaker’s factor” in language has not been given due attention. With the advent of “linguistic turn” in the 20th century, language has become one of the objects of philosophical research and the significance of “the speaker’s factor” in language has attracted a host of scholars from philosophy, ethics, psychology, linguistics and many other disciplines. This paper firstly explores the mostly-acknowledged definition of subjectivity of language put forward by pioneering linguists, then discusses different approaches to the subjectivity of language from pragmatics, Relevance Theory, cognitive linguistics and Systemic Functional Grammar. Based on the previous research, the paper further explicates the speaker’s subjectivity from three aspects, viz. the speaker’s perspective, the speaker’s affect, and the speaker’s epistemic status. Lastly, the paper probes into the definition and development of intersubjectivity of language and points out that “the speaker’s factor” in language has been and will definitely be a vital topic in the future linguistic research.},
     year = {2020}
    }
    

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    AB  - When uttering a sentence, the speaker not only objectively expresses the propositional content of the sentence, but also conveys his views, feelings and attitudes toward the sentence. The speaker’s imprint is inherent in language. However, due to the dominance of structural linguistics and formal linguistics for a long time, “the speaker’s factor” in language has not been given due attention. With the advent of “linguistic turn” in the 20th century, language has become one of the objects of philosophical research and the significance of “the speaker’s factor” in language has attracted a host of scholars from philosophy, ethics, psychology, linguistics and many other disciplines. This paper firstly explores the mostly-acknowledged definition of subjectivity of language put forward by pioneering linguists, then discusses different approaches to the subjectivity of language from pragmatics, Relevance Theory, cognitive linguistics and Systemic Functional Grammar. Based on the previous research, the paper further explicates the speaker’s subjectivity from three aspects, viz. the speaker’s perspective, the speaker’s affect, and the speaker’s epistemic status. Lastly, the paper probes into the definition and development of intersubjectivity of language and points out that “the speaker’s factor” in language has been and will definitely be a vital topic in the future linguistic research.
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Author Information
  • School of Foreign Languages, Shanxi University, Taiyuan, China

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