Traugott (2010): Subjectification and Intersubjectification

[Tra10a] [TD02]

The diachronic hypothesis that lexical items acquire subjective and intersubjective meanings over time, in a fixed order:

nonsubjective → subjective → intersubjective

This is one of the best-supported unidirectional tendencies in semantic change, attested across modality, connectives, discourse markers, and spatial expressions. [Tra10a] is the consolidating statement of the program developed in [TD02].

The synchronic infrastructure (the SubjectivityLevel type and ordering) lives in Features.Subjectivity. This file formalizes the diachronic claims: that the ordering reflects a historical trajectory, that each transition is unidirectional, and that specific semantic domains exhibit this pattern.

Connections

• Semantics.Modality.Narrog: speaker-orientation level maps to subjectivity level; the directionality of modal change (see Studies/Narrog2010.lean) is an instance of subjectification.
• Quantification.Binominal: the bleaching cline (N+PP → evaluative → intensifier) parallels the subjectification trajectory in the nominal domain (binominal steps formalized in Studies/TenWolde2023.lean).
• Morphology/Grammaticalization.lean: subjectification is a semantic dimension of grammaticalization — as forms grammaticalize, they tend to acquire more subjective meanings.

The diachronic cline

structure Traugott2010.SubjectificationStep : Type

A diachronic subjectification step: a word or construction acquires a meaning at a higher subjectivity level.

• expression : String

  Description of the expression.

• sourceMeaning : String

  Earlier (less subjective) meaning.

• targetMeaning : String

  Later (more subjective) meaning.

• sourceLevel : Features.Subjectivity.SubjectivityLevel

  Subjectivity level of the source meaning.

• targetLevel : Features.Subjectivity.SubjectivityLevel

  Subjectivity level of the target meaning.

• directed : self.sourceLevel ≤ self.targetLevel

  Unidirectionality: target is at least as subjective as source.

def Traugott2010.instReprSubjectificationStep.repr : SubjectificationStep → ℕ → Std.Format

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

@[implicit_reducible]

instance Traugott2010.instReprSubjectificationStep : Repr SubjectificationStep

Equations

• Traugott2010.instReprSubjectificationStep = { reprPrec := Traugott2010.instReprSubjectificationStep.repr }

def Traugott2010.canonicalExamples : List SubjectificationStep

Canonical examples of subjectification. [TD02] Table 1, [Tra10a] §2.

Equations

• One or more equations did not get rendered due to their size.

theorem Traugott2010.all_directed (s : SubjectificationStep) : s ∈ canonicalExamples → s.sourceLevel ≤ s.targetLevel

All canonical examples respect unidirectionality.

Intersubjectification

theorem Traugott2010.intersubjectification_presupposes_subjectification : Features.Subjectivity.SubjectivityLevel.subjective ≤ Features.Subjectivity.SubjectivityLevel.intersubjective

Intersubjectification: the final stage of the cline, where meanings come to encode attention to the addressee's face/self-image.

[Tra10a]: intersubjectification presupposes subjectification. An expression must first acquire speaker-oriented meaning before it can develop addressee-oriented meaning.

theorem Traugott2010.cline_total_order (a b : Features.Subjectivity.SubjectivityLevel) : a ≤ b ∨ b ≤ a

The full cline is totally ordered.