Modern Danish Research Articles

Enhanced coarticulatory labialization of /ts/ in Argentine Danish

Abstract This paper presents an acoustic study of coarticulation of Argentine Danish /ts/ using Centre of Gravity (CoG) as the acoustic measure. It shows that the articulation of /ts/ is affected by the roundedness of the following vowel, and that this is more prevalent among speakers of Argentine Danish than among speakers of Modern Danish as spoken in Denmark. The analysis also shows that within Argentine Danish, the speakers of the isolated settlement Eldorado have a larger effect of roundedness in their articulation of /ts/ than the speakers of the settlements in the Pampas and in Buenos Aires. The results are discussed from the perspective of phonological theory on enhanced coarticulation as a source of sound change and from the perspective of theory of language change in heritage languages.

Janteloven in Denmark and Norway — To be or not to be?

The paper focuses on the concept of the Jante law (janteloven), formulated by A. Sandemose in 1933 in his novel En flyktning krysser sitt spor. Fortelling om en morders barndom (A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks. A story about a murderer’s childhood), which later became an element of the cultural code of Denmark and Norway. In this study we follow C. Levisen in his distinguishing between the “literary Jante law”, described by A. Sandemose in his novel, and the “linguistic” Jante law, which is a collocation in the Danish and Norwegian languages. This lexicalization of the concept has been brought about by the specific Scandinavian mentality, conditioned by a number of reasons (the agrarian Scandinavian culture, the Lutheran ethos). In the modern Danish and Norwegian languages the concept of janteloven is negative and is used in specific types of discourse (sports, popular culture, business, politics, psychology, schooling, immigration problems, feminism). Besides, there are numerous reformulated Jante laws (den positive jantelov, den omvendte jantelov, antijantelov, jenteloven, Danskerloven), which proves the precedence of the notion in the Danish and Norwegian cultures. The dominating American individualistic culture influences the development of a new system of values (ambition, self-concern, pushiness are no longer viewed as negative qualities), which results in a conflict between the traditional and the new in the Danish and Norwegian cultures: the Jante law comes into conflict with the so-called achievement culture (præstationskulturen). As a social construct and a secret regulator of public relations the janteloven has found its place between the number of other concepts (hygge, trivsel and so on), yet the janteloven has been specifically reflected in political practices, both in its formal expression (development of various “canons”) and in the methods of countering the imposition of certain phenomena on the part of government authorities.

The use of case forms in Modern Danish – an empirical study

ABSTRACT This paper investigates the distribution of the nominative (nom) and the oblique (obl) form in personal pronouns in Modern Danish. As per a primary rule, pronoun NPs functioning as subjects are typically in the nom form, whilst the obl form is used in all other syntactic functions. Nonetheless, this rule is subject to certain exceptions in a number of constructions. In this paper, we present four studies concerning the distribution of nom and obl in selected constructions, where instances of variation are observed. These investigations are based on data from two separate corpora, one representing written language and the other, spoken language. Our findings suggest that both stylistic and structural characteristics, alongside considerations concerning processing, significantly influence the distribution of nom and obl. Furthermore, we note a considerable disparity in distribution when comparing spoken and written data.

Identifying Recurrences Among Non-Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Patients Using National Health Data Registries: Validation and Optimization of a Registry-Based Algorithm in a Modern Danish Cohort.

Colorectal cancer (CRC) recurrence is not routinely recorded in Danish health data registries. Here, we aimed to revalidate a registry-based algorithm to identify recurrences in a contemporary cohort and to investigate the accuracy of estimating the time to recurrence (TTR). We ascertained data on 1129 patients operated for UICC TNM stage I-III CRC during 2012-2017 registered in the CRC biobank at the Department of Molecular Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark. Individual-level data were linked with data from the Danish Colorectal Cancer Group database, Danish Cancer Registry, Danish National Registry of Patients, and Danish Pathology Registry. The algorithm identified recurrence based on diagnosis codes of local recurrence or metastases, the receipt of chemotherapy, or a pathological tissue assessment code of recurrence more than 180 days after CRC surgery. A subgroup was selected for validation of the algorithm using medical record reviews as a reference standard. We found a 3-year cumulative recurrence rate of 20% (95% CI: 17-22%). Manual medical record review identified 80 recurrences in the validation cohort of 522 patients. The algorithm detected recurrence with 94% sensitivity (75/80; 95% CI: 86-98%) and 98% specificity (431/442; 95% CI: 96-99%). The positive and negative predictive values of the algorithm were 87% (95% CI: 78-93%) and 99% (95% CI: 97-100%), respectively. The median difference in TTR (TTRMedical_chart-TTRalgorithm) was -8 days (IQR: -21 to +3 days). Restricting the algorithm to chemotherapy codes from oncology departments increased the positive predictive value from 87% to 94% without changing the negative predictive value (99%). The algorithm detected recurrence and TTR with high precision in this contemporary cohort. Restriction to chemotherapy codes from oncology departments using department classifications improves the algorithm. The algorithm is suitable for use in future observational studies.

Restrictions on past-tense passives in Late Modern Danish

AbstractThis article investigates a case of lexical restrictions on a voice construction, specifically Danish past-tense passives. Present-Day Danish has both a periphrastic and an inflectional passive construction, but in the past tense, most ablaut (strong) verbs cannot form the inflectional passive (e.g.∗\astskreves‘was written’,∗\astbares‘was carried’). Various explanations for these restrictions have been proposed in the literature, but their historical background has not been investigated in any detail. This article focusses on the passive restrictions in Late Modern Danish, using various sources mainly from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is shown that while lexical restrictions on the past-tenses-passive are already mentioned in eighteenth and nineteenth-century grammars, the grammaticality of the individual forms has changed; for instance, the now obsolete formskreves‘was written’ is attested in several Late Modern Danish sources. Furthermore, the primary sources differ greatly with respect to their use of the passive in the past tense. I suggest that sociolinguistic variables, such as level of education and formality of the texts, must be taken into account when trying to explain the development of the Danish passive, and that the lexical restrictions on past-tenses-passives may in fact be a side effect of standardization in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Genomic diversity and relationship analyses of endangered German Black Pied cattle (DSN) to 68 other taurine breeds based on whole-genome sequencing.

German Black Pied cattle (Deutsches Schwarzbuntes Niederungsrind, DSN) are an endangered dual-purpose cattle breed originating from the North Sea region. The population comprises about 2,500 cattle and is considered one of the ancestral populations of the modern Holstein breed. The current study aimed at defining the breeds closest related to DSN cattle, characterizing their genomic diversity and inbreeding. In addition, the detection of selection signatures between DSN and Holstein was a goal. Relationship analyses using fixation index (FST), phylogenetic, and admixture analyses were performed between DSN and 68 other breeds from the 1000 Bull Genomes Project. Nucleotide diversity, observed heterozygosity, and expected heterozygosity were calculated as metrics for genomic diversity. Inbreeding was measured as excess of homozygosity (FHom) and genomic inbreeding (FRoH) through runs of homozygosity (RoHs). Region-wide FST and cross-population-extended haplotype homozygosity (XP-EHH) between DSN and Holstein were used to detect selection signatures between the two breeds, and RoH islands were used to detect selection signatures within DSN and Holstein. DSN showed a close genetic relationship with breeds from the Netherlands, Belgium, Northern Germany, and Scandinavia, such as Dutch Friesian Red, Dutch Improved Red, Belgian Red White Campine, Red White Dual Purpose, Modern Angler, Modern Danish Red, and Holstein. The nucleotide diversity in DSN (0.151%) was higher than in Holstein (0.147%) and other breeds, e.g., Norwegian Red (0.149%), Red White Dual Purpose (0.149%), Swedish Red (0.149%), Hereford (0.145%), Angus (0.143%), and Jersey (0.136%). The FHom and FRoH values in DSN were among the lowest. Regions with high FST between DSN and Holstein, significant XP-EHH regions, and RoH islands detected in both breeds harbor candidate genes that were previously reported for milk, meat, fertility, production, and health traits, including one QTL detected in DSN for endoparasite infection resistance. The selection signatures between DSN and Holstein provide evidence of regions responsible for the dual-purpose properties of DSN and the milk type of Holstein. Despite the small population size, DSN has a high level of diversity and low inbreeding. FST supports its relatedness to breeds from the same geographic origin and provides information on potential gene pools that could be used to maintain diversity in DSN.

The three-term model of communication and the system of Danish deictic pronouns

The article focuses on the system of deictic pronouns in Danish. It is argued that in addition to binary oppositions expressing the objective (nearest vs distant) location of objects in the physical space relative to the speaker, like this vs that — denne vs den, a three-term opposition develops in modern Danish. This allows to specify the subjective interaction between the three participants in the communicative act: the speaker (1st person), the listener (2nd person) and the objects of the surrounding world (3rd person). The system of secondary demonstrative pronouns — deictic binomials — is investigated. “Deictic binomial” is used as a term for an analytical combination of a simple deictic pronoun and a spatial adverb. Four possible combinations of such binomials are considered. The Danish Corpus (KorpusDK) analysis made it possible to assert that combinations of proximal deixis indicators — such as denne her ‘this here’ — are subjective markers of 1st person signaling that the deictic object enters into the speaker’s personal space. Combinations of indicators of distal and proximal deixis (such as den her ‘that here’) are “cohortatives” — subjective markers of the 2nd person, signaling the common perception of shared attitude to the deictic object by the speaker and its addressee. Combinations of analytical indicators of distal deixis (such as den der ‘that there’) — shift the negatively evaluated object outside the personal space of the speaker and the space of communication, which corresponds to the communicative function of the 3rd person. The search in the Danish Corpus for the fourth type of combinations, that is, combinations of proximal and distal deixis (such as denne der ‘this there’) gives practically no results. This confirms the conclusion that the paradigm for expressing the speakers subjective attitude to the object of deixis in modern Danish is represented by three categories that correspond to three “spatial areas” — the speaker’s personal space (1st person), the common communication space shared with the addressee (2nd person), an external space into which the speaker subjectively removes the disapproved or alienated objects of deixis (3rd person).

Mapping the Household State: Treatment of Disobedient Children in Early Modern Denmark and Sweden

This article offers a comparative analysis of the early modern Danish and Swedish Household state in relation to the treatment of “disobedient” children. It uses law codes and court records to explore the dynamic relationship between the household and state, arguing that contrasting patterns are apparent despite the common features of absolutism, agrarian, and mono-confessional Lutheranism. In Denmark, the state often responded to such cases by arrogating the power of the household and removing children from their care. In Sweden, the state upheld and sought to educate the household and relied upon parents to carry out appropriate chastisements of its junior members.

The affactivefå‘get’ construction in Danish

AbstractAs in many other Germanic languages, Modern Danish combines the verbfå‘get’ and a semantic main verb in the supine form (the uninflected perfect participle). Three main types of the construction are found: an agentive type typically interpreted as expressing successful intentional action and two non-agentive types: one with a ditransitive main verb and promotion of the indirect object to subject status, and one with a non-valency-bound subject typically interpreted as a Beneficiary. Based on a functional framework, the paper presents a corpus study of the construction and an analysis unifying all three main types in a commonAffactive Constructionwhose functional contribution is the specification of the subject as anAfficiary(Beneficiary or Maleficiary). The distinction between agentive and non-agentive interpretation is analysed as a voice distinction between active and passive.

Forgotten words. An investigation of Hans Christian Ørsted’s neologisms and their place in modern Danish

Forgotten words. An investigation of Hans Christian Ørsted’s neologisms and their place in modern Danish

Peculiarities of Danish determiners noget, meget and lidt

This article explores the use of Danish neuter gender quantifiers noget, meget, and lidt with singular and plural common gender nouns. The use of these lexemes can be explained by the two tendencies in modern Danish, both of which entail the violation of the grammatical norm, i. e. the use of common gender nouns with neuter gender lexemes (noget mad, noget sygdom, meget tid etc.). The study of linguistic data also demonstrates that the use of these units in combination with countable nouns is getting more common in the Danish language (noget ananas, meget læge, lidt problemer, noget mand). Both tendencies are relevant to the dichotomy “discreteness/non-discreteness” present in modern Danish, where non-discreteness is connected with neuter gender lexemes, such as noget, meget, lidt, while denotations are thought of as one unit. Various denotations can be nondiscrete in Danish. A vast group is constituted by nouns related to food (en ananas — noget ananas; en kage — noget kage etc.). Lack of agreement in gender as well as number between a noun and a quantifier may cause a shift in meaning of a noun, thus abstract nouns acquire a more particular meaning, i. e. kunst ‘art’ and noget kunst ‘a work of art’. It shall also be noted that the change of grammatical norm may be connected with pragmatics, when the speaker expresses his attitude towards the situation, underlying its insignificance to the listener, which is often seen in contexts where nouns describing some events are used (fest ‘celebration’, dåb ‘christening’, sammenkomst ‘party’). Examples presented in this article are taken from Danish tv-series, TV programs and everyday communication.

The False King Olaf, Queen Margaret, and the Prussian Hansa

The case of the False Olaf has received comparatively little attention. In 1402, a Prussian peasant was brought to Scandinavia, heralded by his supporters as King Óláfr Hákonarson (known in modern Danish as Oluf II, or in Norwegian as Olav IV). The real King Óláfr had died in 1387, and the imposter seems to have capitalized on a popular belief that Queen Margaret, the King’s mother, had him killed. In this article I begin by introducing the sources for the False Olaf affair. I consider the case alongside international analogues, and I build on earlier theories concerning the sorts of actors who probably organized the imposture. Previous assertions that the False Olaf was mentally ill are shown to be unnecessary. I underline the relative amateurishness of the scheme to suggest that it belongs to a broader genre of hapless intervention that occurs when mercantile interests (or the interests of capital) fail to grasp properly the workings of governments.

Subjective and Objective Orientation in Space by Means of Pronominal Deixis in Danish

The article focuses on the three-term model of a communicative situation and its role in the restructuring of the system of deictic pronouns in the Danish language. It is argued that in addition to binary oppositions that indicate close (denne, dette, disse) or remote (den, det, de) location of an object in physical space modern Danish develops a three-term opposition of analytical demonstrative pronouns (complex demonstratives), reflecting the interaction between the three participants in a communicative act: the speaker, the listener and the external world. The study of analytical demonstrative pronouns in the Corpus of Modern Danish (Korpus DK) shows that complex demonstratives that combine two indicators of proximal deixis (denne her, dette her, disse her) are used as subjective markers of the 1st person, signaling that the deictic object intrudes into the speaker's personal space. Complex demonstratives that combine indicators of proximal and distal deixis (den her, det her, de her) are used as cohortatives, signaling the compatibility of perception of the deictic object by the addresser and the addressee. Complex demonstratives that combine indicators of the distal deixis (den der, det der, de der) serve as signals of a subjectively withdrawn or alienated object. Thus, the paradigm of complex demonstratives in the Danish language based on the idea of three “spatial belts” is established: the personal space of the speaker (1st person), the common space of communication shared with the addressee (2nd person) and the external space into which the speaker mentally remotes reproved or alienated deictic objects (3rd person).

Sin og sig med flertalsantecedent fra runesten til LANCHART

In modern Danish, the reflexive pronouns sin and sig differ in terms of their ability to corefer with a plural antecedent. The reflexive possessive sin typically only allows singular antecedents and the reflexive pronoun sig allows both singular and plural antecedents. Instead of sin, speakers use the non-reflexive deres to corefer with a plural antecedent.
 This difference between sin and sig is fairly new. Up until the beginning of the twentieth century, many speakers used not only sin but also sig primarily with singular antecedents and the non-reflexive counterparts deres and dem with plural antecedents. This usage pattern goes back to before the thirteenth century. In this paper I investigate the development in the use of sin and sig with plural antecedents. In the earliest runic sources of Danish from before 1000 AD, both sin and sig are
 used with plural antecedents. In the Middle Danish provincial laws from the thirteenth century, sin and sig are both restricted to occurring mainly with singular antecedents. This usage, reflexive pronouns/possessives with singular antecedents and non-reflexive pronouns/possessives with plural antecedents, is found in the spoken language at least until the twentieth century. However, I show with data from the spoken corpus LANCHART that the use of dem with plural antecedents has almost disappeared in modern Danish.

From indexical to symbolic case in Danish – a content analysis

ABSTRACT In late Middle Danish, case was reduced to pronominal case, but in spite of this, Middle Danish case preserved features of a system typologically different from modern Danish. Case grammaticalised semantic roles, with considerable polysemy. Along with the transitivity system, Middle Danish preserved inactive (impersonal) constructions and the polysemy of the case forms was resolved according to construction type. Such a system is indexical in the sense that the case forms point to their predicate types as the locus from which their polysemy is resolved. From this stance, it makes sense to maintain a sharp distinction between predicational structure (argument(s) and predicate), grammatical relations (subject and object) and case paradigms. Inactive constructions do not have oblique subjects, but objects as their basic argument, and subjects are everywhere in the nominative case. So-called oblique subjects cannot be agents. In accordance with this claim by Jan Terje Faarlund, I propose an analysis of the grammaticalised semantic role systems of transitivity and inactivity. The rise of categorical sentence structure, including the alignment of subjecthood, status as the primary argument, subject position and a kind of structural nominative case is a development of post-Reformation Danish.

A Land of Milk and Butter: How Elites Created the Modern Danish Dairy Industry

A Land of Milk and Butter: How Elites Created the Modern Danish Dairy Industry

Frekvens og modalverbumparadigmets semantiske udvikling fra ældre nydansk til moderne dansk

In this paper, I analyze the development of the modal verb paradigm from Early Modern Danish to Modern Danish. The Early Modern Danish system is highly polysemous and far from isomorphic in the sense of a harmonious semantic system with one meaning corresponding to one form and vice versa. In comparison to this, the modern system has reduced polysemy through semantic specialization of central modal verbs. The paradigmatic development of the modal verbs from Early Modern Danish to Modern Danish can be understood as a levelling process, consisting of a series of interrelated push chains. This development is conditioned by the frequency of the other modal verbs. It is paradigmatically conditioned in the sense that the diachronic changes undergone by the individual modal verbs are interrelated. Since the development is explained as a frequency effect, the explanation is in line with usage-based approaches.

The Land of Milk and Butter: How Elites Created the Modern Danish Dairy Industry. By Markus Lampe and Paul Sharp (Chicago, Chicago University Press, 2018), 273 pp. $65.00

<i>The Land of Milk and Butter: How Elites Created the Modern Danish Dairy Industry</i>. By Markus Lampe and Paul Sharp (Chicago, Chicago University Press, 2018), 273 pp. $65.00

Foregrounding of subordinate clauses by word order: Psycholinguistic evidence of the function of V&gt;Adv (V2) word order in Danish

AbstractIn modern Danish, main clauses have the word order X&gt;Verb&gt;Adverb (i. e., V2) whereas subordinate clauses are generally characterized by the “subordinate clause” word order Subject&gt;Adverb&gt;Verb. Spoken Danish has a high frequency of “main clause” word order in subordinate clauses, however, and in the article we argue that this “Main Clause Phenomena” (cf. Aelbrecht et al. 2012) functions as a foregrounding device, signaling that the more important information of the clause complex is to be found in the subordinate clause instead of in its matrix clause.A prediction from the foregrounding hypothesis is that a subordinate clause with Verb&gt;Adverb word order will attract more attention than a clause with Adverb&gt;Verb word order. To test this, we conducted an experiment under the text change paradigm. 59 students each read 24 constructions twice, each containing a subordinate clause with either Verb&gt;Adverb or Adverb&gt;Verb word order. Half of the subordinate clauses were governed by a semifactive predicate (open to both word orders) and the other half by a semantically secondary sentence (in itself strongly favoring Verb&gt;Adverb word order). Attention to the subordinate clause was tested by measuring how disinclined the participants were to notice change of a word in the subordinate clause when re-reading it.Results showed significantly more attention to Verb&gt;Adverb clauses than to Adverb&gt;Verb clauses (though only under semifactive predicates), and more attention to subordinate clauses under semantically secondary than semifactive predicates. We consider this as strongly supporting the hypothesis that Verb&gt;Adv word order functions as a foregrounding signal in subordinate clauses.

Subordinativ vs. koordinativ.

Abstract This article addresses (expanded) prenominal adjectival/participial attributes in modern German and modern Danish. Generally, German is considered more expandable in the prenominal position compared to Danish. However, this topic has never been studied sufficiently on an empirical basis. The article begins by giving a brief comparative survey of the structure of the NP in the respective languages. This is followed by a presentation of the corpus of the study, which consists of prose texts (newspaper articles). An important result of the analysis is that in German, the NP middle field frequently comprises subordinate structures, whereas in Danish, it more often comprises coordinate structures. This contrast is explained by different configurations of linguistic features (gender and number) that are conducive to framing constructions (Ronneberger-Sibold 2010ab).