Subjectivity: Between discourse and conceptualization

This brief ‘conceptual’ paper offers some reflections on the status of ‘subjectivity’ in language. Section 1 highlights the differences and correlations between a few of the major current concepts of subjectivity, notably the ‘general’ ones by Traugott (1989), Traugott and Dasher, 2002) and Langacker, 1990, Langacker, 1999 and Langacker, 2008, and the specific one(s) as postulated in the context of the analysis of modal expressions (Nuyts, 2001 and Nuyts, 2012). Section 2 then zooms in on the ‘functional’ role in language use of the modality-related – or probably more accurately, attitude-related – dimension, focusing on its discursive status. Section 3, finally, returns to the issue of how the major notions of subjectivity discussed in Section 1 relate, and how this can only be understood with reference to both the conceptual and the discursive status of the phenomena at stake.