Subjectivity in Language and in Discourse deals with the linguistic encoding and discursive construction of subjectivity across languages and registers. The aim of this book is to complement the highly specialized, parallel and often separate research strands on the phenomenon of subjectivity with a volume that gives a forum to diverse theoretical vantage points and methodological approaches, presenting research results in one place which otherwise would most likely be found in substantially different publications and would have to be collected from many different sources. Taken together, the chapters in this volume reflect the rich diversity in contemporary research on the phenomenon of subjectivity. They cover numerous languages, colloquial, academic and professional registers, spoken and written discourse, diverse communities of practice, speaker and interaction types, native and non-native language use, and Lingua Franca communication. The studies investigate both already well explored languages and registers (e.g. American English, academic writing, conversation) and with respect to subjectivity, less studied languages (Greek, Italian, Persian, French, Russian, Swedish, Danish, German, Australian English) as well as many different communicative settings and contexts, ranging from conference talk, promotional business writing, academic advising, disease counselling to internet posting, translation, and university classroom and research interview talk. Some contributions focus on individual linguistic devices, such as pronouns, intensifiers, comment clauses, modal verbs, adjectives and adverbs, and their capacity of introducing the speaker's subjective perspective in discourse and interactional sequence; others examine the role of larger functional categories, such as hedging and metadiscourse, or interactional sequencing.
Introduction
Nicole Baumgarten, Juliane House and Inke Du Bois
Part I Individual Languages and Registers Super, Uber, So, and Totally: Over-the-top Intensification to Mark Subjectivity in Colloquial Discourse
Rachelle Waksler
Collective Aspects of Subjectivity: The Subject Pronoun emeı´B (‘we’) in Modern Greek
Theodossia-Soula Pavlidou
Objectivizing Subjectivity: Person Deixis and the Constitution of Dialogic Identity (with an Example of German Discourse Data)
Gabriele Diewald and Marijana Kresic´
Authorial Stance in Research Article Abstracts and Introductions from Two Disciplines
Phuong Dzung Pho
Subjectivity in the Discourse of Depressed Acute Care Hospital Patients
Helen Tebble
Part II Language Contact Settings Subjectivity in English Lingua Franca Interactions
Juliane House
Metadiscourse and the Construction of Speaker Identities in L2 Academic Presentational Talk
Nicole Baumgarten
Saying What You Think: An Analysis of French and Australian English Non-Native Speaker Expression of Subjectivity
Kerry Mullan
Subjectivity and Intersubjectivity as Aspects of Epistemic Stance Marking
Janus Mortensen
Subjective Modality in Persian and English Parallel Texts
Mohammad Amouzadeh, Manoochehr Tavangar and Shadi Shahnaseri
Part III Cross-Linguistic Comparison Subjectivity in Contrast: A Cross-Linguistic Comparison of ‘I Think’ in Australian English, French and Swedish
Kerry Mullan and Susanna Karlsson
Hedging in German and Russian Conference Presentations: A Cross-Cultural View
Anna Breitkopf-Siepmann
Grammatical, Pragmatic and Sociolinguistic Aspects of the First Person Plural Pronoun
Inke Du Bois
Subjectivity in Academic Discourse: A Cross-Linguistic Comparison of the Author’s Presence in French, Italian and German Research Articles in Linguistics
Nadine Rentel
Authorial Presence and Stance in German and French Letters to Shareholders
Anne Ku¨ppers
Self-Presentation and Adaptation in Institutional Discourse: An Analysis of German and French Introductory Rounds of University Seminars
Claudia Scharioth