Subjectivity, subjectality and subjectivation: how to become a subject

Abstract

The theoretical and methodological frame of this paper is given
by greimassian and post-greimassian semiotics linked to linguistics.
At the cross-roads of these disciplines, enunciative semiotics
enables us to examine further the notions of subjectivity, subjectality
and subjectivation, as they enter into the definition of
the subject of enunciation. These notions are closely interrelated.
More precisely, we approach these notions from three points
of view. First, we focus on the marks, traces and prints in a text in order to examine further the notion of expressivity,
which is related to one of the regimes of subjectivity:
the “subjective” subjectivity, which characterizes the subject of
enunciation. Secondly, we turn our attention to the origins of the
subject of enunciation and we identify two more regimes of
subjectivity: the “participant” subjectivity, which is related to a
sensitive body (corps-actant) and its sensori-motricity, and the
“subjectal” subjectivity, which is linked to perception. Thirdly,
we want to show how the “subjective” subjectivity and the subject
of enunciation take shape in a text not only through marks,
traces and prints, but even more so through the organizational
forms called genre, style, idiolect or texture.
Thus the subject of enunciation may be defined as the convergence
point of three regimes of subjectivity, which characterize
the development of the subject (subjectivation). The different
levels corresponding to the “participant”, the “subjectal” and the
“subjective” regimes of subjectivity define an enunciative path.