Language and age

Ageism: stereotyping and discriminating against individuals or groups on the basis of their age - (Kite et. al, 1005) Meta-analysis revealed that while both positive and negative stereotypes exist for people of all age ranges, the stereotypes for older people are more negative due to - Increase in tendency to medicalise the elderly (seen as patients instead of people with wisdom and life experiences) because of the development of the profitable medical industry that targets older people because they are more likely to seek it and they have the means to afford it - Growing proportion of individuals over the age of 65, could lead the younger generation to view them as a burden Worsened by the coinage and popularisation of terms such as “ageing population” that can imply heavier responsibility on the younger generation to support the future world. - In the media, portrayal of older adults that emphasise frailty, confusion and grumpiness is commonplace as a way to humour and entertain younger audiences. Modern day society as a whole also views ageing as undesirable, especially when it is evident from physical appearance shown through the fact that “anti-ageing” is a multi-billion dollar industry that continues to grow Use of labels such as “hag”, “geezer”, “grumpy old man” in media The search for positive terms for older adults – “old”, “senior”, “elderly” are all negatively connotated to be associated with frailty and limitation. The idea of being labelled or categorised as “old” is often offensive, so much so that in 2016 two-thirds of the Marist Poll respondents considered the age 65 to be “middle-aged” or even “young”. The preferred term is slowly becoming “older people”, giving the impression that the addressee is not labelled old but simply relatively older than others. - The use of positive lexis and euphemisms to represent ageing process as active and positive in contributing to society; associating the older generation with positive traits Examples from Singapore: “active ageing”, “pioneer generation” usually coined by the generation in an active effort to preserve and acknowledge the contributions and retained capability of older adults Elderspeak / ageist language: a simplified speech register that is often used with older adults driven by stereotypical perceptions of older adults implying that they need to be specially accommodated for; often used with intentions to improve care but usually comes across as disrespectful and condescending to older adults whose self-perception can be negatively affected

- Common characteristics: slowing speech, kinship terms, speaking louder - Referred to as “infantilization” of communication, done based on the stereotype that an older is like a child with limited capacity of understanding and assumptions of other impairments such as hearing loss - This is humiliates older adults, lowering their self-esteem which can cause resentment towards caregivers and social isolation - LFs: Reduction of length and complexity of utterances More sentence fragments Lexis with simple meanings Simple lexis (less than 3 syllables) More utterances per turn and per topic More repetitions Use of inclusive pronouns “we” “you” “us” instead of “you” Making statements sound like questions Adding kinship terms/pet names Prosody: Reduction of speed in utterances, longer pauses, louder volume, exaggerated intonation Labels for different age groups: each generation has specific associated attributes that contribute to stereotyping - Lost Generation (1883-1900) - Greatest Generation (1901-1927) - Silent Generation (1928-1945) - Baby Boomers (1946-1964) - Generation X (1965-1980) - Millennials (1981-1996) - Generation Z (1997-2012) - Generation Alpha (2013 onwards) - Essentialising: the way which stereotypes reduce members of a social group to a supposed essence or attribute - Naturalising: suggests that these qualities are absolutely inherent and not amenable to change in the characters or personalities of the stereotyped groups Observations of age and youth: - When speakers are young, the influence of the overt norm is likely to be relatively weak but peer pressure will be strong

- In the middle years, people’s lives tend to become more public and they are expected to adapt to the norms and values of the mainstream society - For older people. The pressure to conform to societal norms may be weaken once more Youthspeak: covert prestige, valued by youths when speaking to each other but is often frowned upon by older more conservative adults - To create an identity , provide a sense of belonging and create a separation between an in-group and out-group - Recognised by other social groups #Genzmarketing “Letting Gen Z write our script” 2024 Oxford dictionary word of the year’s shortlist included terms such as “brain rot”, “demure” and “lore” because of its prevalent current use in Gen Z slang - Draws on shared experiences Video games: “NPC”, “sidequest”, “Where we dropping?” instead of “where are we going?” from PUBG - Example for influence of shared social practice: High School Ethnography (Eckert, 2000) Eckert defined groups in terms of social practices – common activities a group did together. She identified 2 very different friendship groups, the Jocks and the Burnouts; both groups contained individuals with a mix of social class based on parental occupation, housing, etc. The Jocks actively engaged in and enjoyed school life, characterised by being school-oriented, showing respect for authority and taking part in school activities and clubs. On the other hand, the Burnouts were the opposite, they chose not to be involved in school activities and engaged in reckless behaviour; they were described to be anti-school, anti-authority, and often showed involvement in bad behaviour through drinking, drugs and sex. - Eckert’s results showed that people tend to speak more like their friends who they shared social practice with, rather than people in the same demographic (in this case, social class) - Investigated sound change focusing on the backing and lowering of (uh) where the Burnouts’ had an overwhelming lead which proved her hypothesis since the Burnout’s had more contact with peers closer to the city while the Jocks’ were limited mostly to peers front their community - Adolescence the stage where there is a societal expectation to separate from the nuclear family and develop individual identity, for most this separation happens co