From community to conversation – and back. Exploring the interpersonal potentials of two generic pronouns in Danish

Abstract

This paper combines a quantitative study of the two most important Danish pronouns used for generic reference, du and man, with interaction analyses. The quantitative study shows an overall increase in the use of generic du at the expense of man. However, a large scale quantitative study alone cannot tell us much about the finer differences between the two variants, let alone come up with explanations for the change in their use. In this paper, we demonstrate a way to supplement a quantitative study with detailed interaction analyses with the aim of interpreting the tendencies demonstrated in the quantitative study. Whereas there is no difference between generic du and man with respect to propositional meaning, our interactional analyses reveal important differences in their interpersonal potentials: Generic du is to a larger degree than man used as a resource for enactment and involvement. This difference between du and man is due to du retaining some of its second person meaning also when used generically, and the rise in the use of generic du is likely to reflect an ongoing process of intimization in the society at large.

Diffusion of language change: Accommodation to a moving target

“…Bolinger ; Kitagawa and Lehrer ; Blondeau ; Berman ; Hyman ). Quantitative work on variation and change in the use of second person pronouns versus other pronouns for generic reference includes studies of French, the first being Laberge's study of indefinite pronouns in Montreal French (Laberge ; Laberge and Sankoff ) and, more recently, of Danish (Jensen ; Nielsen, Fogtmann and Jensen ). These studies find that the use of personal pronouns is indeed an area of grammar which exhibits much variation – probably, as Coveney () points out, because of the close association of these pronouns with social relationships.…”

What do(es) you mean? the pragmatics of generic second person pronouns in modern spoken Danish

“…Quantitative work on variation and change in the use of second person pronouns versus other pronouns for generic reference includes studies of French, the first being Laberge's study of indefinite pronouns in Montreal French (Laberge 1976;Laberge & Sankoff 1980;cf. also Thibault 1991) and, more recently, of Danish (Beck Nielsen et al 2009;Jensen 2009a;Maegaard et al 2013). These studies find that the use of personal pronouns is indeed an area of grammar which exhibits much variationprobably, as (Coveney 2003: 164) points out, because of the close association of these pronouns with social relationships.…”

<i>Sinä</i>, konteksti ja monitulkintaisuus

“…Tämäntyyppistä persoonamuotojen käyttöä, jossa viittauksen kohteena ei ole ainoastaan yksi, tietty yksilö tai ryhmä yksilöitä, on dokumentoitu ja tutkittu useissa eri kielissä. Kansainvälisen tutkimuskirjallisuuden perusteella erityisen yleinen tällainen tapa käyttää persoonamuotoja on yksikön 2. persoonan kohdalla, josta havaintoja ja tutkimusta on tehty ainakin englannin (Kitagawa & Lehrer 1990;Kamio 2001), espanjan (Flores-Ferrán 2009), hollannin (de Hoop & Tarenskeen 2015), mandariinikiinan (Biq 1991), ranskan (Williams & van Compernolle 2009), saksan (Bredel 2002;Kluge 2016;Auer & Stukenbrock 2018), (suomen)ruotsin (Fremer 1999(Fremer , 2000 ja tans-kan osalta Nielsen, Fosgerau & Jensen 2009;Jensen & Gregersen 2016). Myös suomen kielestä on tunnistettu vastaava ilmiö (esim.…”