Singular de and its referential use in talk-in-interaction
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/sss.v11i2.123477Keywords:
Personal pronouns, gender neutral pronouns, conversation analysis, reference, gender indexingAbstract
The Danish pronoun de and its inflections are traditionally described as 3rd person plural, but, as this article demonstrates, it is also used as a gender neutral 3rd person singular pronoun. As this pronoun – termed singular de – has not been documented or described in the literature thus far, the purpose of this article is to provide a grammatical description and analysis of singular de and its referential use in interaction. This is based on 104 occurrences of singular de in naturally occurring conversation. It is found that singular de is used with both generic and specific reference, and that interlocutors may use singular de to avoid indexing gender and orienting to it as a relevant topic in talk-in- interaction (gender-unspecified reference) or to index the referent’s gender as neither male nor female (gender-specified reference). The article also parallels between singular de and English singular they, as well as sociolinguistic variation in the use of singular de which could be topics for future studies.
References
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Ochs, Elinor. 1992. Indexing gender. In: Duranti, Alessandro and Goodwin, Charles (eds.) Rethinking context: Language as an interactive phenomenon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 335-358.
Palakornkul, Angkab. 1975. A socio-linguistic study of pronominal usage in spoken Bangkok Thai. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 5, 11–42. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl
Panagiotidis, Phoevos. 2002. Pronominal nouns. In: Simon, J. Horst and Wiese, Heike (eds.). Pronouns – Grammar and Representation. 183-204.
Premawardhena, Neelakshi Chandrasena. 2002. Reference devices in Sinhala. In: Simon, J. Horst and Wiese, Heike (eds.). Pronouns – Grammar and Representation. 63-84.
Raymond, Chase Wesly. 2016. Linguistic reference in the negotiation of identity and action: Revisiting the T/V distinction. Language, 92(3), 636-670.
Sacks, Harvey. 1984. Notes on methodology. In: Atkinson, J. Maxwell and Heritage, John. (eds.): Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 413-429.
Sacks, Harvey. 1992. Lectures on Conversation. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Sacks, Harvey, Schegloff, Emanuel A., and Jefferson, Gail. 1974. A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language, 50(4), 696-735. Schegloff, Emanual A. 1979. The relevance of repair for syntax-for-conversation. In: T. Givon (ed.) Syntax and semantics 12: Discourse and syntax. New York: Academic Press: 261-288.
Schegloff, Emanuel A. 1997. Whose Text? Whose Context? Discourse and Society 8(2): 165-187.
Schegloff, Emanuel A. 2007. A tutorial on membership categorization. Journal of Pragmatics 39: 462-482.
Schegloff, Emanuel A., Jefferson, Gail, and Sacks, Harvey. 1977. The preference for self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation. Language 53(2). 361-382.
Sendén, Marie Gustafsson, Bäck, Emma A., and Lindqvist, Anna. 2015. Introducing a gender-neutral pronoun in a natural gender language: the influence of time on attitudes and behavior. Frontiers in Psychology 6(893). DOI: https://doi. org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00893
Simon, J. Horst and Wiese, Heike (eds.). 2002. Pronouns – Grammar and Representation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins B.V.
Simpson, Rita C. 1997. Metapragmatic discourse and the ideology of impolite pronouns in Thai. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 7(1), 38-62. DOI: https://doi. org/10.1525/jlin.1997.7.1.38
Stivers, Tanya and Robinson, Jeffrey D. 2006. A preference for progressivity in interaction. Language in society: 367-392.
Stivers, Tanya, Enfield, N. J., and Levinson, Stephen C. 2007. Person reference in interaction. In: Enfield, N.J. and Stivers, Tanya (eds.). Person reference in interaction: Linguistic, cultural, and social perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University press. 1-20.
Stokoe, Elizabeth and Smithson, Janet. 2001. Making Gender Relevant: Conversation Analysis and Gender Categories in Interaction. Discourse and Society 12(2): 243- 269.
Storoshenko, Dennis. 2019. Non-binary third person reflexives in English, and the construction of identity. They, Hirself, Em, And You Conference. Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. Conference presentation.
Truong, Tran. 2019. Morphological Typology of neopronouns. They, Hirself, Em, And You Conference. Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. Conference presentation.
Wales, Katie. 1996. Personal Pronouns in Present-Day English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Balhorn Mark. 2004. The rise of epicene they. Journal of English Linguistics 32(2): 79- 104. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0075424204265824
Bhat, D. N. S. 2004. Pronouns. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Bross, Fabian. 2019. Acceptability Ratings in Linguistics: A Practical Guide to Grammaticality Judgements, Data Collection, and Statistical Analysis. Retrieved from: www.fabianbross.de/acceptabilityratings.pdf
Brown, Penelope and Levinson, Stephen C. 1960. The pronouns of power and solidarity. In: Seboek, Thomas Albert. Style in language. MIT Press. 253-276.
Bruun, Andrea. 2019. Det indefinitte pronomen man brugt som 1. person singularis i samtaler. In: Goldshtein, Yonatan, Hansen, Inger Schoonderbeek, and Hougaard, Tina Thode (eds.): 17. Møde om Udforskningen af Dansk Sprog. Aarhus: Aarhus Universitet.
Callaway, Kit. 2019. Neopronouns In Contemporary English: Language Change in Progress. They, Hirself, Em, And You Conference. Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. Conference presentation.
Christensen, Ken Ramshøj and Nyvad, Anne Mette. 2019. De her sætninger er jeg vilde med! Sproglig variation i prædikative adjektivers kongruensmønster. In: Goldshtein, Yonatan, Hansen, Inger Schoonderbeek, and Hougaard, Tina Thode (eds.) 17. Møde om Udforskningen af Dansk Sprog. Aarhus: Aarhus Universitet.
Comrie, Bernard. 2003. When agreement gets trigger-happy. Transactions of the Philological Society 101(2), 313-337. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467- 968X.00121
Conrod, Kirby. 2019. Pronouns Raising and Emerging. University of Washington. PhD dissertation.
Eckert, Penelope and McConnell, Ginet, Sally. 2013. Language and Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hepburn, A. and Bolden, G. B. 2013. Transcription. In: Sidnell, Jack. and Stivers, Tanya (eds.) Blackwell Handbook of Conversation Analysis. Oxford: Blackwell. 57- 76.
Hansen, Erik and Heltoft, Lars. 2011. Grammatik over Det Danske Sprog. Odense: Syddansk Universitetsforlag.
Helmbrecht, Johannes. 2015. A typology of non-prototypical uses of personal pronouns: synchrony and diachrony. Journal of Pragmatics 88, 176-189. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2014.10.004
von Heusinger, Klaus. 2002. Reference and Representation of pronouns. In: Simon, J. Horst and Wiese, Heike (eds.). Pronouns – Grammar and Representation. 109-136. Hoey, Elliott Michael and Kendrick, Kobin H. 2017. Conversation Analysis. In: de Groot, A. M. B. & Hagoort, P. (eds.): Research Methods in Psycholinguistics: A Practical Guide. Wiley Blackwell.
de Hoop, Helen and Tarenskeen, Sammie. 2015. It’s all about you in Dutch. Journal of Pragmatics 88, 163-175. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2014.07.001 Hopper, Robert and LeBaron, Curtis. 1998. How Gender Creeps Into Talk. Research on Language and Social Interaction 31(1): 59-74. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327973rlsi3101_4
Jensen, Torben Juel. 2009. Generic variation? Acta Linguistica Hafniensia: International Journal of Linguistics, 41, 83-115. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/03740460903364128 Jørgensen, Maria. 2017. Samtalegrammatik i skriftlig online interaktion: En digital- samtaleanalytisk undersøgelse af udvalgte samtalegrammatiske fænomener på Facebook. Aarhus: Aarhus University. Dissertation.
Konnelly, Lex and Cowper, Elizabeth. 2020. Gender diversity and morphosyntax: an account of singular they. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics 5(1), 40. DOI:http://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.1000
MacNamara, Jessica, Glann, Sarah, and Durlak, Paul. 2017. Experiencing Misgendered Pronouns: A Classroom Activity to Encourage Empathy. American Sociological
Association 45, 269.278. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0092055X17708603 Miltersen, Ehm Hjorth. 2016. Nounself pronouns: 3rd person personal pronouns as identity expression. Journal of Language Works – Sprogvidenskabeligt Studentertidsskrift, 1(1), 37-62. Retrieved from https://tidsskrift.dk/lwo/article/view/23431
Miltersen, Ehm Hjorth. 2018. De, den, hen, and the rest. Journal of Language Works– Sprogvidenskabeligt Studentertidsskrift, 3(1), 31-42. Retrieved from https://tidsskrift.dk/lwo/article/view/107538
Mühlhäusler, Peter and Harré, Rom. 1990. Pronouns and People: The Linguistic Construction of Social and Personal Identity. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Ochs, Elinor. 1992. Indexing gender. In: Duranti, Alessandro and Goodwin, Charles (eds.) Rethinking context: Language as an interactive phenomenon. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 335-358.
Palakornkul, Angkab. 1975. A socio-linguistic study of pronominal usage in spoken Bangkok Thai. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 5, 11–42. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl
Panagiotidis, Phoevos. 2002. Pronominal nouns. In: Simon, J. Horst and Wiese, Heike (eds.). Pronouns – Grammar and Representation. 183-204.
Premawardhena, Neelakshi Chandrasena. 2002. Reference devices in Sinhala. In: Simon, J. Horst and Wiese, Heike (eds.). Pronouns – Grammar and Representation. 63-84.
Raymond, Chase Wesly. 2016. Linguistic reference in the negotiation of identity and action: Revisiting the T/V distinction. Language, 92(3), 636-670.
Sacks, Harvey. 1984. Notes on methodology. In: Atkinson, J. Maxwell and Heritage, John. (eds.): Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 413-429.
Sacks, Harvey. 1992. Lectures on Conversation. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
Sacks, Harvey, Schegloff, Emanuel A., and Jefferson, Gail. 1974. A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language, 50(4), 696-735. Schegloff, Emanual A. 1979. The relevance of repair for syntax-for-conversation. In: T. Givon (ed.) Syntax and semantics 12: Discourse and syntax. New York: Academic Press: 261-288.
Schegloff, Emanuel A. 1997. Whose Text? Whose Context? Discourse and Society 8(2): 165-187.
Schegloff, Emanuel A. 2007. A tutorial on membership categorization. Journal of Pragmatics 39: 462-482.
Schegloff, Emanuel A., Jefferson, Gail, and Sacks, Harvey. 1977. The preference for self-correction in the organization of repair in conversation. Language 53(2). 361-382.
Sendén, Marie Gustafsson, Bäck, Emma A., and Lindqvist, Anna. 2015. Introducing a gender-neutral pronoun in a natural gender language: the influence of time on attitudes and behavior. Frontiers in Psychology 6(893). DOI: https://doi. org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00893
Simon, J. Horst and Wiese, Heike (eds.). 2002. Pronouns – Grammar and Representation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins B.V.
Simpson, Rita C. 1997. Metapragmatic discourse and the ideology of impolite pronouns in Thai. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 7(1), 38-62. DOI: https://doi. org/10.1525/jlin.1997.7.1.38
Stivers, Tanya and Robinson, Jeffrey D. 2006. A preference for progressivity in interaction. Language in society: 367-392.
Stivers, Tanya, Enfield, N. J., and Levinson, Stephen C. 2007. Person reference in interaction. In: Enfield, N.J. and Stivers, Tanya (eds.). Person reference in interaction: Linguistic, cultural, and social perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University press. 1-20.
Stokoe, Elizabeth and Smithson, Janet. 2001. Making Gender Relevant: Conversation Analysis and Gender Categories in Interaction. Discourse and Society 12(2): 243- 269.
Storoshenko, Dennis. 2019. Non-binary third person reflexives in English, and the construction of identity. They, Hirself, Em, And You Conference. Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. Conference presentation.
Truong, Tran. 2019. Morphological Typology of neopronouns. They, Hirself, Em, And You Conference. Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario. Conference presentation.
Wales, Katie. 1996. Personal Pronouns in Present-Day English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Published
2020-12-15
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Miltersen, E. H. (2020). Singular de and its referential use in talk-in-interaction. Scandinavian Studies in Language, 11(2), 37. https://doi.org/10.7146/sss.v11i2.123477
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