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

TY - JOUR

T1 - From community to conversation - and back

T2 - Exploring the interpersonal potentials of two generic pronouns in Danish

AU - Fosgerau, Christina Fogtmann

AU - Jensen, Torben Juel

AU - Nielsen, Søren Beck

N1 - This is an electronic version of an article published in "Acta Linguistica Hafniensia: International Journal of Linguistics" Volume 41, Issue 1. Acta Linguistica Hafniensia is available online. To read the full article and for more information please follow the link above.

PY - 2009

Y1 - 2009

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - Faculty of Humanities

KW - pronominer

KW - konversationsanalyse

KW - sprogforandring

KW - pragmatik

KW - grammatik

KW - systemisk funktionel lingvistik (SFL)

KW - pronouns

KW - conversation analysis

KW - language change

KW - pragmatics

KW - grammar

KW - Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL)

KW - Appraisal Theory

U2 - 10.1080/03740460903364151

DO - 10.1080/03740460903364151

M3 - Journal article

SN - 0374-0463

VL - 41

SP - 116

EP - 142

JO - Acta Linguistica Hafniensia

JF - Acta Linguistica Hafniensia

ER -