Is anyone aware of the grammar rules with regards to when 的 is pronounced di （ㄉㄧ）

I notice it in some songs (both secular, and church), and the curiosity starting to bug me (:

I'm pretty sure the general rule for saying "di" instead of "de" is "When you see 的 in a song you should pronounce it 'di'."

To the best of my knowledge it's just pretending to be like 得 and 地 by having two different pronunciations, but there isn't a grammatical reason to say 的 differently.

Found the following explanation from http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/fenyea.song@kimo.com/article?mid=285&prev=290&l=f&fid=12

「的」字的唱法：
「的」字在文字或語言中是語助詞，讀、或說、都是輕聲帶過。在歌曲中短時質的音符，而又在弱拍位置的「的」字，可以輕聲唱ㄉㄜ（得）音。

但是這個「的」字，如在句子中很重要，而且是在強拍上、長音上的「的」字、便須要唱成ㄉ一（地）音。

@maljax It seems that within the same song, it will be pronounced differently. Hence I am not sure if there is an easy way to know when it should be pronounced which way, for example:

http://lyrics.oiktv.com/lyric.php?sid=1368&aid=403&lid=9553

這樣的天可以是何等大 (的＝ㄉㄧ）

我的模樣有你手的冰涼 (的＝ㄉㄜ)

Perhaps when you are referring to yourself its ㄉㄜ, otherwise its ㄉㄧ.

@pts, sorry my chinese isn't quite at reading chinese web sites yet!

In short, what I've copied roughly means, if the 的 is an upbeat, or the duration of that note is short, it should be sung as ㄉㄜ.

But when the meaning of the 的 is important in that sentence, and on an accented beat or its duration is long, then sing it as a ㄉ一.

@pts, thanks. I could probably have worked out how to translate your post but it would have taken me a very long time!