Dong-Hwan Kim. 2001. Subjectification and Semantic Extension. Studies in Modern Grammar 23, 127-148. As the title of this paper suggests, this paper intended to show how the mechanism of subjectification takes a role in the semantic extension of linguistic units. Subjectification means that an aspect of human beings participates in the expression of the world in a language. Here the aspect of human beings is the mental eyes or mental scanning for a given scene. Subjectification is one of the dimensions of Langacker`s conventional imagery or construal. Other dimensions of construal include the level of specificity, scale/scope, background assumption, profiling, and mental scanning. Langacker(1990) characterizes subjectification as the realignment of some relationship from the objective axis to the subjective axis. In other words, obJective motion by the onstage subject is replaced by subjective motion on the part of the offstage conceptualizer. Langacker(1999) revises his previous model using the concept `shif tead of `realignment` or replacement`. According to his new model of subjectification, an objective relationship fades away, leaving behind a subjective relationship that was originally immanent in it. In other words, subjectification is the shift of the relatively objective interpretation to the more subjective interpretation. This revised model makes it easir to conceive of subjectification as being a gradual process. The gradual process of subjectificetion is consistent with the gradual process of the human cognition. Semantic extension is not a discontinuous but continuous process. Therefore, Langacker`s(1999) revised model of subjectification is the more appropriate mechanism for the semantic extension.

• 김동환 | Dong Hwan Kim