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.

以前关于简奥斯汀的学术研究经常评论她的词汇选择的道德色彩。更具体地说，“不正确”的词汇创新和流行词（即新用法）往往被用作愚蠢、易受骗或道德上应受谴责的角色的白痴的一部分。相比之下，符合道德标准的字符通常在既定（“旧”）用法和“正确”标准英语曲目的范围内移动。本案例研究以主观化的历史语言概念为出发点，探讨了两个形容词（可爱和漂亮）的使用）在奥斯汀的小说中。文章 (a) 表明，对奥斯汀小说中“旧”和“新”词义的直接社会道德分类并不完全充分，并且 (b) 与最近的学术研究一致，主张采用更细致入微的研究方法在她的虚构词汇中，一个词的新旧含义（在这种情况下，可爱和漂亮）在不同角色类型的方言之间移动，以达到讽刺、角色和情节建设的目的。