Style-dependent rules for reduction: Mixed-model multiple linear regression analysis of reduction phenomena in Danish news readings

Abstract

It has been suggested that Danish is a language particularly prone to spoken language reductions in spontaneous speech. Previous studies have shown that reduction phenomena, in Danish and other languages, are rule-governed by e.g. phonological context, word frequency and stress patterns. This paper analyses two reduction phenomena, those occurring in the endings -ede and -te in a genre of spoken Danish which is particularly resistant to reductions, viz. radio news readings. Its first aim is to establish the reduction rules of formal spoken Danish and compare these with the rules of more informal spoken Danish, e.g. sociolinguistic interviews. Reduction of -te is found to follow the same general rules as in spontaneous speech, although reductions are far less frequent in news readings. Reduction of -ede is found to follow rules different from those of spontaneous speech. The second aim is to investigate whether the reduction rules have changed over the 70 years which the data span. It is found that the rules, and thus the style, have indeed changed. The modern rules appear to be simpler and include less complex interaction effects.