Dual function of (inter)subjectivity in the use of well as a discourse marker

Abstract

It is widely acknowledged that subjective elements emerge in the initial position of an utterance, known as the left periphery, whereas intersubjective elements typically emerge in the final position, referred to as the right periphery. However, this functional asymmetry is not invariably maintained. This study advances the argument that the discourse marker well can serve a dual purpose, simultaneously expressing both a speaker’s subjectivity and intersubjectivity at the outset of an utterance, specifically on the left periphery. Essentially, well indexes the speaker’s subjectivity mediated through intersubjectivity. Additionally, the study explores the intricate relationship between intersubjectivity and the textual function of well as a discourse marker. This study reveals that intersubjective functions can contribute to the development of textual functions.

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Publication history
Table of contents

In recent years, there has been significant discussion of which linguistic items and functions emerge on the ‘periphery’ of an utterance. The periphery comprises the utterance-initial (i.e., the left periphery) and utterance-final (i.e., the right periphery) positions. Beeching and Detges (2014, 11) hypothesized a functional asymmetry between these left and right peripheries, positing a distinct tendency for expressions in the left periphery to be subjective (self-addressed) and those in the right periphery to be intersubjective (other-addressed). However, this one-to-one association between a speaker’s (inter)subjective stance and position in the periphery has been challenged in various studies (e.g., Degand and Fagard 2011; Onodera 2007, 2014; Traugott 2012, 2014). For example, no doubt is subjective on both the left and right peripheries, whereas surely is intersubjective on both peripheries (Traugott 2012). Conversely, the proposition that each periphery has a single meaning has scarcely been challenged, despite the occurrences of cases where a clear-cut distinction between subjective and intersubjective meaning cannot be made. This study argues that a speaker can use well as a discourse marker to express his/her subjective perspective in an intersubjective manner on the left periphery.

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Corpora

Du Bois, John W., Wallace L. Chafe, Charles Meyer, and Sandra A. Thompson
2000Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English, Part 1. Philadelphia: Linguistic Data Consortium.Google Scholar
Du Bois, John W., Wallace L. Chafe, Charles Meyer, Sandra A. Thompson, and Nii Martey
2003Santa Barbara Corpus of Spoken American English, Part 2. Philadelphia: Linguistic Data Consortium.Google Scholar

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