1. GROUP MEMBERS
 SANGEETHA ARUMUGAM
 SHAMALA VENKATESAN
 SUGANIYA NILAMEGAN
 JOSEPHINE UMA SELVARAJU
 VINOTHINY VIJAYAKUMAR

2. INTRODUCTION
• Language variation allows us as
speakers to locate ourselves in a multi-
dimensional society.
• Age is one of the dimensions on which
we construct identities for ourselves and
others.

3.  consider three life stages and how people
construct an age identity for themselves
and others at those stages.
:Children
:The teenage years
:The elderly

5. Age as a
factor in
language
variation

6. Age as a factor in language
variation
 In English the age description is the most
‘defining’ characteristic for classifying people .
it’s placed closest to the person:
Example:
 The intelligent old woman
 The attractive teenage singer
 The dishonest young man

7.  Their attempt to initiate a new topic is
ignored
 They are to be interrupted and
overlapped
 Elderly people communicate more
confidence.

9. How people talk..
Children
Young people
Elderly people

11. CHILDHOOD
 Children naturally acquire language
 Infancy and early childhood is the ideal
time to immerse a child in a foreign
language
 They can differentiate the sounds of any
language in the world
 They can acquire two languages at a
same time

12. ADULTHOOD/YOUNG PEOPLE
 Use informal style of
language
 Use language as a range of
everyday personal skills

13. CONTINUE….
 Difficulties in some areas
1. Poorer quality of communication
2. Inappropriate register
3. Narrative skills

14. ELDERLY PEOPLE
 Use simple sentences
 Ask more questions
 Repeating or paraphrasing what has
just been said.

15. TALKING WITH ELDERLY
PEOPLE
 Use clear and precise sentences
 Make an eye contact
 Adjust voice tone appropriately
 Talk slow, be patient and smile

17. Importance of age as a cultural
category
 Your age can determine whether you can
attend school, marry, drink alcohol, vote, draw
a pension, or get into the movies at half price.
 To see just how important age labels :
(a) Intelligent woman the old
(b) singer the teenage attractive
(c) dishonest man young the
(d) middle-aged the nurse kind

18. Most people produce the following:
(a) the intelligent old woman
(b) the attractive teenage singer
(c) the dishonest young man
(d) the kind middle-aged nurse

19.  The age description is placed closer to the „the
person‟ than the other description
 Even though intelligence, honesty, physical
attractiveness and kindness are all important to
us, they somehow seem to be secondary to a
person‟s age.

20. Labeling age groups
Under 5 – 20-60 Over 65
 youngster •adult •adult
 girl •mature person •elderly person
 boy •woman •senior citizen
 minor •man •retired person
 newborn •lady •aged
 kid/kiddy •gentleman
 infant
 baby
 Toddler

21. Talking about age groups
 Have you ever noticed that some adjectives
seem to „belong‟ to a particular age group
 There seem to be several adjectives, both
positive and negative foolish that are used
very frequently to describe both these
groups.

23. Definition of Language.
•Any code employing signs, symbols, or
gestures used for communicating ideas
meaningfully between human beings.

24. There are three theories of
language
1. Behavioristic by skinner.
2. Nativistic or psycholinguistic:
Chomsky
3. Interactionistic: Piaget

26. There are five language components :
a) Phonology,
b) Morphology,
c) Syntax,
d) Semantics and
e) Pragmatics

27. A. Phonology
 Study and use of individual sound units in a
language and the rules by which they are
combined and recombined to create larger
language units.
 Phonemes are the unit of sound such as /s/ or
/b/, / d/ they do not convey meaning.
 Phonemes alter meaning of words when
combined.
 For an example for the phonemes /s/ is sat

28. Phonological Deficits
Frequently appear as articulation
disorders
◦ Child omits a consonant: “oo” for you
◦ Child substitutes one consonant: “wabbit”
for rabbit
◦ Discrimination: child hears “go get the
nail” instead of mail

29.  First video is a Speech sample
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Pw6_tHmztk
 Second video is about how a Speech-Language
Pathologist teaches student /r/ production.
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpJLDJn5eBU
&feature=related

30. B. Morphology.
 Study and use of morphemes, the smallest
units of language that have meaning.
 A morpheme is a group of sounds that refers to
a particular object, idea, or action
 Free morphemes that can stand alone
 Affixes are bound such as prefixes and
suffixes and when attached to root words
change the meaning of the word.

31. Morphological Deficits
 Elementary aged: may not use appropriate
inflectional endings in their speech (e.g.,"
He walk” or “Mommy coat”).
 Middle school: lack irregular past tense or
irregular plurals (e.g., drived for drove or
mans for men).

32. D. Semantics
 Language meaning; the meaning of
individual words as well as the meaning
that is produced by a combination of words.
 More than single words, includes complex
use of vocabulary, including structures such
as word categories, word
relationships, synonyms, antonyms and
figurative language.

33. Semantic Deficits
 Limited vocabulary especially in adjectives,
adverbs, prepositions, or pronouns
 Lack of understanding of how context can
change the meaning of words
 Figurative language problems

34. C. Syntax
 Syntax: rule system governing the order and
combination of words to form sentences, and
the relationships among the elements within a
sentence.
 Referred to as the grammar of the language
and allows for more complex expression of
thoughts and ideas by making references to
past and future events

35. Syntactic Deficit
 Lack the length or syntactic complexity
 Problems comprehending sentences that
express relationship between direct or
indirect objects.

36. E. Pragmatics
 Pragmatics: use of language in
communication; may include verbal, vocal,
or motoric expression
 Knowledge and ability to use language
functionally in social or interactive
situations.

37. Pragmatic Deficits
 Problems understanding indirect requests
 Example : may say yes when asked “Must
you play the piano?”).

38. Q & A SESSION

39. The end