Singular perception, multiple perspectives through we: constructing intersubjective meaning in English and German

Whitt, Richard J.

Abstract

This paper presents the results of a corpus-based investigation of the role of the first-person plural pronoun in the construction of intersubjective meaning among evidential perception verbs in written and spoken English and German (mainly written). Whereas the first-person singular pronoun only signifies that the evidence rests solely with the speaker/writer, the first-person plural pronoun allows a much wider range of intersubjective meanings concerning the nature of the evidence. It is also shown how English and German perception verbs express intersubjective evidential meaning in a number of different complementation patterns, how the type of this meaning is often linked to these patterns, and how the use of the first-person plural pronoun can vary among and within these constructions.

Citation

Whitt, R. J. (2014). Singular perception, multiple perspectives through we: constructing intersubjective meaning in English and German. In T.-S. Pavlidou (Ed.), Constructing collectivity: 'we' across languages and contexts. John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.239

• Acceptance Date: Dec 1, 2012
• Publication Date: Feb 27, 2014
• Deposit Date: Aug 23, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 23, 2017
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Issue: 239
• Series Title: Pragmatics & beyond new series
• Book Title: Constructing collectivity: 'we' across languages and contexts
• ISBN: 9789027256447
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/pbns.239
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/722758
• Publisher URL: https://benjamins.com/#catalog/books/pbns.239/main
• Additional Information: This is under copyright and the publisher should be contacted for permission to re-use or reprint the material in any form.
• Contract Date: Aug 23, 2017