Purpose

The history of inversions in English is particularly relevant to the notions of subjectivity and subjectivisation, since several facets of these notions are directly involved in the meaning history of this syntactic structure. Some types of inversions in English have distinct ‘emotive’, ‘expressive’, ‘subjective’, or ‘discourse’ meanings, which historically have not always been attached to this syntactic structure. This chapter tries to analyse the mutual relationship of structural history and the history of the subjective meanings of inversions.

On subjectivity

In the literature at large and in the chapters in this volume there seem to be five notions of subjectivity and subjectivisation:

1. A general notion of subjectivity in the analysis of literature, such as expounded in the analysis of Tristram Shandy by Iser (1988). This is closely related to the concept of individualism. This concept is about the – predominantly literary and artistic – expression of subjective feelings and emotions. It is about the relationship of the artist and the subject of his message.

2. Related to 1: the language of such literature as the vehicle of expression in texts belonging to type 1 may be called ‘subjective’ to the extent that the flow of thought represented and the feelings communicated concern ‘emotions’ in the narrower sense. Subjective language and individualistic writing may not contain emotional language, such as expressing feelings like anger, joy, despair etc. The best common denominator is ‘expressive’ language in the speech-act sense.

3. […]