Speaking while Aging

Worldwide, the number of individuals aged 65 and older is greater than ever, and is projected to grow even more in the foreseeable future. This development has engaged researchers of all stripes, with the happy result that we now know more about the varied effects of aging than at any time before. Curiously, however, a fundamental area of human behaviour, one that is particularly critical to overall well-being, has been neglected: language. Are speech capabilities affected by the inevitable physical and cognitive declines that tend to materialize in later life? This is what the widespread use of Elderspeak – the simpler, louder, slower speech regularly addressed to this cohort – would suggest. But empirical evidence involving the actual linguistic behaviour of older adults is thin on the ground. This talk describes the new multilevel project we’re carrying out at the uOttawa Sociolinguistics Lab to fill this gap. Drawing on our decades of research on the everyday speech of local francophones and anglophones, and focusing on the circumstances under which languages change or remain stable, we apply scientific methodology and the lessons learned from the study of younger generations to hundreds of hours and millions of words of spontaneous speech of 135 individuals aged 65 – 104. Come and hear what we’re discovering about the pronunciation, grammar and storytelling strategies that effectively characterize Golden Age.

Guest speaker: Shana Poplack, CM, D. Litt, F.R.S.C. is a Distinguished Professor in the linguistics department at the University of Ottawa and three time holder of the Canada Research Chair in Linguistics. Her work applies theoretical and methodological insights gained from the study of linguistic variation and change to a variety of fields, including bilingual language mixing, language contact and grammatical convergence, the genesis of African American Vernacular English, normative prescription and praxis, the role of the school in linguistic change, and most recently, language use in old age.

Presentation in English followed by a bilingual question period.