Jonas Nygaard Blom

Syntactic Complexity in Danish Radio News

Abstract The present article documents a diachronic decline in syntactic complexity in manuscript-based radio news on the primary Danish public service channel, DR, from 1946 to 2006. This decline corresponds to a general shift in radio news language from a traditional formal news style to a modern news style based on the principles of natural spoken language. It is, however, hard to assess whether the syntactic changes have had an effect on how easy or difficult it is to understand what is being said on DR – a topic that has been frequently and fervently debated in the Danish press.

The Effects of Phonetic Reduction on Actual and Perceived Comprehension by News Audiences

So-called “sloppy speech” is a frequent subject of criticism in broadcast and electronic news media. In particular, phonetic reductions are accused of compromising comprehension. This paper presents the results of an experimental self-sampling study (9015 participants) that examines the effects of reductions in scripted news speak. Overall, the results show that reductions have limited effects on comprehension. However, abstract, complex and ambiguous linguistic conditions seem to involve an efficient word recognition that is slightly hindered by reduced pronunciation. There are no correlations with sex, geographic region or length of education, whereas age seems to play a partial, though inconclusive, role.