Generic use of the second person pronoun in Danish - the spreading of a linguistic innovation

Description

In modern Danish, a handful of pronouns can be used to refer to a generic referent, i.e. to a group of persons not further defined, in some cases mankind in general. In Standard Danish, the most frequently used pronoun with generic reference is man, developed from the noun man(d) (˜ English man). In recent decades, though, the second person singular pronoun du has gained ground, arguably under the influence from English, and in parallel to similar recent develop­ments in other languages.

This paper presents the results of an ongoing study of the developments in the use of generic pronouns in contemporary spoken Danish. The study is based on recordings from four different geographical locations (including the capital Copenhagen) of the same speakers recorded twice, in the 1970ies or 1980ies and again in 2005/06, as part of the LANCHART-project. In order to uncover possible functional differences between du and the pronouns traditionally used for generic reference, the use of generic pronouns is analysed according to syntactic contexts and referential inclusion. In addition, the influence of geographical origin, gender and social class is studied, as well as the possible interaction of func­tional and sociolinguistic factors. This mapping of the distribution of ge­neric du in linguistic and social contexts will allow us to for­mulate and test hypotheses about the spreading of linguistic innovations in late 20^th century Danish.