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 20<sup>th</sup> 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.
Highlights
At the beginning of last century, Bréal proposed “subjectivity” as a linguistic phenomenon [4]
This paper is aimed to reiterate the importance of subjectivity and intersubjectivity and expound the definition and implication of subjectivity and intersubjectivity based on the previous relevant research
Communication and Linguistics Studies 2020; 6(1): 1-5 In Langacker’s cognitive grammar, perspective is classified as a kind of understanding operation under focal adjustments, that is, perspective is a dimension of understanding and a way to observe a situation, including figure/ground alignment, viewpoint and subjectivity [14]
Summary
At the beginning of last century, Bréal proposed “subjectivity” as a linguistic phenomenon [4]. After Benveniste, Lyons makes a further explanation of “subjectivity” He holds that “in making an utterance, the speaker simultaneously comments upon that utterance and expresses his attitude to what he is saying. This notion of subjectivity is of great importance, as we shall see, for the understanding of both epistemic and deontic modality” [17]. “subjectivity denotes the property (or set of properties) of being either a subject of consciousness (i.e., of cognition, feeling and perception) or a subject of action (an agent) It denotes the property of being what Descartes himself called a ‘thinking entity’ and identified, as others have done, with the self or the ego” [18]. This paper is aimed to reiterate the importance of subjectivity and intersubjectivity and expound the definition and implication of subjectivity and intersubjectivity based on the previous relevant research
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