Cover not available
Article published In:
Politeness in and across Historical Europe
Edited by Annick Paternoster, Gudrun Held and Dániel Z. Kádár
[Journal of Historical Pragmatics 24:1] 2023
► pp. 179–197

The informalisation of address practice in Swedish in a historical perspective

 | Independent Scholar* Helsinki
In the 1960s, Swedish address practices underwent a change from an intricate system of honorifics to universal use of the informal second-person singular du. This study challenges the common characterisation of this so called “du-reform” as very quick and straightforward. Previous studies, relying on reported usage and written language, suggest that the formal pronoun ni was considered impolite, while the informal du was restricted to use amongst family and close friends. I used advertising films to trace diachronic usage patterns in dialogue and in addressing the viewer. My study shows evidence of change over a period of fifteen years. It also shows that the formal address pronoun ni and informal address by du were both used in addressing the viewer long before the du-reform. The du-reform is a noteworthy change in European politeness behaviour. Today, the informal du is the unmarked address form in Swedish.
Keywords: address practice, advertising films, diachronic change, sociopragmatics, Swedish
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Data and methodology
    • 2.1Advertising films
    • 2.2Forms of address
    • 2.3Aim of the study
    • 2.4Data
    • 2.5Methodology
  • 3.Results
    • 3.1 Du and ni to the viewer: A quantitative overview
    • 3.2 Du to the viewer
    • 3.3 Ni to the viewer
    • 3.4The use of titles in dialogue
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • Acknowledgments
  • Data
  • References
Published online: 6 March 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jhp.00067.fre
References (30)
References
Ahlgren, Perry. 1978. Tilltalsordet ni. Dess semantik och användning i historiskt perspektiv. [‘ The Address Word Ni: Its Semantics and Use from a Historical Perspective ’]. Uppsala: Almqvist and Wiksell International.Google Scholar
Clyne, Michael, Catrin Norrby and Jane Warren. 2009. Language and Human Relations: Styles of Address in Contemporary Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Fairclough, Norman. 1992. Discourse and Social Change. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Förberg, Einar. 1946. Att sälja med film [‘ How to Use Film to Sell ’]. Stockholm: Förlags AB Affärsekonomi.Google Scholar
Fremer, Maria. 2015. “At the Cinema: The Swedish ‘Du-reform’ in Advertising Films”. In Catrin Norrby and Camilla Wide (eds), Address Practice as Social Action: European Perspectives, 54–74. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
. 2018. Tilltal i reklamfilm. Du-reformen i ett historiskt perspektiv [‘ Address Forms in Advertising Films: The Du-Reform in a Historical Perspective ’]. Helsinki: University of Helsinki.Google Scholar
Gennies, Linda. 2023. “German and Romance Civility in Contact: Retracing Early Modern European Dynamics of Polite Address through Historical Foreign Language Manuals”. Special issue of Journal of Historical Pragmatics 24 (1): 86–104. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Helgesson, Karin. 2011. Platsannonsen i tiden. Den orubricerade platsannonsen 1955–2005 [‘ The Recruitment Advertisement 1955–2005 ’]. Gothenburg: University of Gothenburg.Google Scholar
Isosävi, Johanna. 2023. “Historical Changes in Politeness Norms: Are Finnish and French Conceptions of Politeness Moving Closer to Each Other?” Special issue of Journal of Historical Pragmatics 24 (1): 198–216. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Isosävi, Johanna and Hanna Lappalainen (eds). 2015. Saako sinutella vai täytyykö teititellä? Tutkimuksia eurooppalaisten kielten puhuttelukäytännöistä [‘ Studies on Address Practices in European Languages ’]. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura.Google Scholar
Jansson, Puck. 1996. “Om produktionen av husmorsfilmerna, lite historik. Referat av frågestund” [‘On the Production of the Housewife Films – Its History in Brief: Summary of a Discussion’]. In Eva Block (ed.), Husmors filmer. Dokumentation från forskarsymposium [‘ Housewife Films: Notes from a Research Symposium ’], 7–12. Stockholm: The Swedish Sound and Image Archive.Google Scholar
Josephson, Olle. 2004. Ju. Ifrågasatta självklarheter om svenskan, engelskan och alla andra språk i Sverige [‘ Contested Certainties about Swedish, English and All Other Languages in Sweden ’]. Stockholm: Norstedts Akademiska Förlag.Google Scholar
Kádár, Dániel and Michael Haugh. 2013. Understanding Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Lakoff, Robin. 1975. Language and Woman’s Place. New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Löfgren, Orvar (ed.). 1988. Hej, det är från försäkringskassan! Informaliseringen av Sverige [‘ The Informalisation of Sweden ’]. Stockholm: Natur and Kultur.Google Scholar
Mårtensson, Eva. 1988. “Den familjära myndigheten. Intimiseringen av det offentliga språket” [‘The Intimisation of Public Language’]. In Orvar Löfgren (ed.), Hej, det är från försäkringskassan! Informaliseringen av Sverige [‘ Hi, It’s from the Social Insurance Agency! The Informalisation of Sweden ’], 105–127. Stockholm: Natur and Kultur.Google Scholar
Mazzon, Gabriella. 2010. “Terms of Address”. In Andreas H. Jucker and Irma Taavitsainen (eds), Historical Pragmatics, 351–376. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Moyna, María Irene, Bettina Kluge and Horst J. Simon. 2019. “Address and Address Research: Here’s Looking at You, Kid”. In Bettina Kluge and María Irene Moyna (eds), It’s Not All about You: New Perspectives on Address Research, 1–20. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
ne = Nationalencyklopedin [‘ The National Encyclopedia ’]. Available online at: [URL]
Norrby, Catrin and Camilla Wide (eds). 2015. Address Practice as Social Action: European Perspectives. Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.Google Scholar
Norrby, Catrin, Jenny Nilsson and Heidi Nyblom. 2007. “Tilltalande tilltal? Om tilltalsskick i Sverige och Finland” [‘On Address Practices in Sweden and in Finland’]. Språk och Stil 171: 5–29.Google Scholar
Paunonen, Heikki. 2010. “Kun Suomi siirtyi sinutteluun. Suomalaisten puhuttelutapojen murroksesta 1970-luvulla” [‘On the Change in Finnish Address Practices in the 1970s’]. In Hanna Lappalainen, Marja-Leena Sorjonen and Maria Vilkuna (eds), Kielellä on merkitystä. Näkökulmia kielipolitiikkaan [‘ Language Matters: Perspectives on Language Policy ’], 325–368. Helsinki: Suomalaisen Kirjallisuuden Seura.Google Scholar
sag = Teleman, Ulf, Staffan Hellberg and Erik Andersson. 1999. Svenska Akademiens grammatik [‘ The Swedish Academy Grammar ’]. Stockholm: Norstedts Ordbok.Google Scholar
saob = Ordbok över svenska språket utgiven av Svenska Akademien [‘ The Swedish Academy Dictionary ’]. (1893–). Lund. Available online at: [URL]
Svensson, Jan. 1993. Språk och offentlighet. Om språkbruksförändringar i den politiska offentligheten [‘ On Changes in Language Usage in Political Publicity ’]. Lund: Lund University Press.Google Scholar
Tandefelt, Marika. 2013. Prima vara! Språk- och stilhistoriska studier i finlandssvenska och svenska varuhusannonser under 1900-talet [‘ Language and Style in Finland–Swedish and Swedish Department Store Ads in the 1900s ’]. Helsinki: The Society of Swedish Literature in Finland.Google Scholar
Teleman, Ulf. 2003. Tradis och funkis [‘ Swedish Language Planning and Language Policy after 1800 ’]. Stockholm: Norstedts Ordbok and Norstedts Akademiska.Google Scholar
Thelander, Kerstin. 2007. “Tilltal och tilltalsväxling i svensk dramadialog” [‘Address and Alternations in Address in Swedish Dramatic Dialogue’]. Språk och stil 171: 49–85.Google Scholar
Watts, Richard J. 2003. Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Yli-Vakkuri, Valma. 2005. “Politeness in Finland: Evasion at All Cost”. In Leo Hickey and Miranda Stewart (eds), Politeness in Europe, 189–202. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters Ltd. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Kádár, Dániel Z., Gudrun Held & Annick Paternoster
2023. Introduction. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 24:1 ► pp. 1 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 4 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.