Beyond intersubjectification

This paper discusses textual uses of modality and mood forms in English and Japanese and claims that they represent a shift from subjective through intersubjective to the textual. As the shift towards textual function is difficult to define in terms of either subjectification or intersubjectification, it is suggested that shift towards the textual needs to be acknowledged as equal to the shift towards the subjective and the intersubjective. These three kinds of shifts are understood as together forming the larger tendency of change labeled as ‘speech-act orientation’. Furthermore, the cases discussed in this paper provide evidence for the fact that textual functions, which have often been conceived as an intermediate stage in change towards subjective and intersubjective elements, are in fact sometimes the endpoints of grammatical change, beyond subjective and intersubjective functions.