TY - JOUR
T1 - Language, desire, and the ontogenesis of intersubjectivity
AU - Rumsey, Alan
PY - 2003
Y1 - 2003
N2 - Benveniste argued that subjectivity is constituted through the linguistic category of person. Equally crucial, I argue, are the categories of mood and modality, especially the imperative. As with personal pronouns, the use of these categories presupposes commutability of perspectives between speaker and addressee. Drawing on language-acquisition research on four languages, I show that children master the imperative before the personal pronouns, and that the linguistic categories of person and modality are closely connected within a reversible figure-ground relationship, in which intersubjectivity is constituted through the interplay of desire and recognition.
AB - Benveniste argued that subjectivity is constituted through the linguistic category of person. Equally crucial, I argue, are the categories of mood and modality, especially the imperative. As with personal pronouns, the use of these categories presupposes commutability of perspectives between speaker and addressee. Drawing on language-acquisition research on four languages, I show that children master the imperative before the personal pronouns, and that the linguistic categories of person and modality are closely connected within a reversible figure-ground relationship, in which intersubjectivity is constituted through the interplay of desire and recognition.
U2 - 10.1016/S0271-5309(02)00042-3
DO - 10.1016/S0271-5309(02)00042-3
M3 - Article
SN - 0271-5309
VL - 23
SP - 169
EP - 187
JO - Language and Communication
JF - Language and Communication
ER -