Towards a comprehensive pragmatic model of subjectivity: Empirical evidence from French

Abstract

This paper delves into the phenomenon of subjectivity, with a particular focus on one of its components – perspective taking. It explores two linguistic cues categories: verb tenses in their perspectival usages and Free Indirect Discourse (FID). In this paper, we experimentally test how readers process sentences in which the French Passé Simple is employed in a perspectival manner within two types of subjective contexts: those with FID and those without FID markers. In addition, we consider whether the processing is influenced by the type of emotion expressed in these subjective contexts, whether it is positive or negative. We find a facilitation effect exclusively in FID contexts and only when the emotion expressed is positive. This could suggest that it is not the verb tense itself which is a cue for speaker’s subjectivity, but rather its occurrence in contexts such as FID. To interpret the results, we build on an array of empirical results found on connectives, verb tenses, and FID to put forward a comprehensive pragmatic model of subjectivity.