On the personal pronoun du in the contemporary Danish language

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the main trends in the usage of the pronoun du in contemporary Danish. By the early 19th century, the form of address had undergone changes and the informal du started contrasting with the polite, reverential De. This opposition had held till the 1960s, when the old system of address collapsed. Experts believe that it is the democratization of society, the 1968 youthquake and the formation of a welfare state that accounted for this collapse. As the result of these changes in society, du becomes the main form of address, irrespective of the communicative situation. Although in the 21th century De is still used, the occasions of its usage have been considerably reduced. Today, there apparently exists a category of Danes who never resort to this pronoun. Since the 1970s the pronoun du has been used increasingly frequently instead of the indefinite-personal man, which is the result of both the influence of the English language and the afore-mentioned changes in the system of address. One of the novel trends in the conversational language is the use of du in the emotive function. The analysis of remarks from popular television series shows that du used at the end of the sentence starts performing an interjectional function to emphasize the purport of the message. The final du is largely used in conversations between well-acquainted people. In official situations, when addressing a stranger or a virtual stranger, such an address is regarded as impolite, even rude.