Abstract

This article investigates persons and semantic verb types as indexes of subjectivity in English and Persian as well as English (L1=Persian) Interlanguage. Our data were collected through informal classroom debates arranged for adult intermediate speakers of English as a foreign language at Azad University at Esfahan. The results of the study reveal that Interlanguage contains all verb types that are present in Persian and English. The percentages of the frequencies of different verb types in Interlanguage, however, are closer to those in Persian. Since Interlanguage contains verb types and persons also present in both L1 and L2, it can function like L1 and L2 for expressing subjectivity. English (L1=Persian) Interlanguage has got the capacity to be as subjective as any other language. Interlanguage subjectivity, however, is remarkably influenced by patterns of subjectivity expression in L1. Although the participants have attained some measure of independence in other linguistic respects, traces of transfer at macro-levels of language functioning such as subjectivity are still left behind.