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David Yoong Soon Chye, Maya Khemlani David

Talking to older Malaysians: A case study

Previous studies (e. g. Macionis 2001 and Gilleard and Higgs 2000) have shown that the elderly are frequently subject to ageism (a form of social stratification which discriminates groups of people by their ages) in industrialised societies. In any sort of social stratification, language plays an important role in the sustenance of the inequality of power and hegemony (Kramarae, Schulz and O'Barr 1984; Foucault 1980; and Fairclough 1995). The code used in ‘talking down’ to the older persons (Coupland, Coupland and Giles 1991), is termed ‘elderspeak’ (Simpson 2002), ‘secondary baby-talk’ (la Tourette and Meeks 2000), ‘motherese–parentese language’ and ‘adult–child’ language (Masataka 2002). This paper discusses the features of elderspeak found in a Christian-based Malaysian geriatric day-centre,

Multilingua Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication, Walter de Gruyter

Print ISSN: 0167-8507
Volume: 25, 05/2006
Pages: 165 - 182

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