'A patient act of adjustment': Subjectivisation, adjectives and Jane Austen

Gonzalez-Diaz, Victorina ORCID: 0000-0001-8856-342X (2021) 'A patient act of adjustment': Subjectivisation, adjectives and Jane Austen LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE, 30 (3). pp. 276-298. ISSN 0963-9470, 1461-7293

Text Austen_Subjective adjectives submission with abstract.docx - Author Accepted Manuscript Download (1MB)

Abstract

Previous scholarship on Jane Austen has often commented on the moral overtones of her lexical choices; more specifically, the fact that “incorrect” lexical innovations and fashionable words (i.e. new usages) tend to be deployed as part of the idiolect of foolish, gullible or morally reprehensible characters. By contrast, ethically sound characters normally move within the limits of established (‘old’) usages and the “correct” Standard English repertoire. Taking the historical linguistic concept of subjectivisation as starting point, this case-study explores the use of two adjectives (lovely and nice) in Austen’s novels. The article (a) demonstrates that a straightforward socio-moral classification of ‘old’ and ‘new’ word-senses in Austen’s fiction is not fully adequate and (b) advocates, in line with recent scholarship, a more nuanced approach to the study of her fictional vocabulary, where old and new senses of a word (in this case, lovely and nice) move across the idiolect of different character-types for ironic, character- and plot-building purposes.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	adjectives, Jane Austen, lovely, nice
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences > School of the Arts
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	17 Mar 2025 10:25
Last Modified:	24 Jan 2026 03:01
DOI:	10.1177/09639470211023245
Related Websites:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3127976
Disclaimer:	The University of Liverpool is not responsible for content contained on other websites from links within repository metadata. Please contact us if you notice anything that appears incorrect or inappropriate.