Accommodating the elderly: Invoking and extending a theory

TLDR

The article reviews the role of the elderly in sociolinguistics, noting recent work on young‑to‑elderly language strategies and a revised communicative‑predicament framework. The authors aim to demonstrate that speech accommodation theory can illuminate intergenerational communication and to propose a revised model of such interactions. They develop a schematic model of speech accommodation, analyze contrastive case‑study data to identify elderly‑to‑young strategies, and extend the framework to include over‑ and under‑accommodation. Their interpretive analysis indicates that speech accommodation theory can be extended to account for new intergenerational strategies. Keywords: accommodation theory, elderly, overaccommodation, case studies, discourse management, stereotypes, underaccommodation, interdisciplinary.

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article begins by exploring briefly the role of the elderly in sociolinguistic theory and research. After an outline of the parameters of speech accommodation theory together with a new schematic model, it is argued that speech accommodation theory is a profitable framework for elucidating the sociolinguistic mechanics of, and the social psychological processes underlying, intergenerational encounters. A recent conceptual foray in this direction, which highlights young-to-elderly language strategies, is then overviewed with some illustrations. Contrastive data from a case study are then introduced, a discourse analysis of which allows us to conceptualize various elderly-to-young language strategies. This interpretive analysis suggests important avenues for extending speech accommodation theory itself. A revised, more sociolinguistically elaborated version of this framework is then presented which highlights strategies beyond those of convergence, maintenance, and divergence and leads to the conceptualization of over - and under accommodation. Finally, and on the basis of the foregoing, a new model of intergenerational communication is proposed and Ryan et al. 's (1986) “communicative predicament” framework duly revised. (Accommodation theory, elderly, overaccommodation, case studies, discourse management, stereotypes, underaccommodation, interdisciplinary)