Audience Design and Social Relations in Aging. (October 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Keller-Cohen, Deborah
• Is Part Of: Research on aging. Volume 37:Number 7(2015:Oct.)
• Page Start: 741
• Page End: 762
• Publication Date: 2015-10
• Subjects: audience design -- social relations -- aging; Old age -- Periodicals; Gerontology -- United States -- Periodicals; 305.2605
• DOI: 10.1177/0164027514557039
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0164-0275

Abstract

This study asks two questions: (1) Do older adults modify their language based on age of the listener (audience design)? (2) Does social contact affect audience design in older adults? Older adults ( n = 34; mean age = 82) engaged in an instructions task with two fictive listeners (a child and an adult) to test these questions. Results show that older adults used a greater total number of propositions and rapport-building devices and a lower type–token ratio when giving instructions to the child compared to the adult listener. Adults with more social interactions used more propositions when talking to a child. In addition, satisfaction with interactions was significantly positively related to task-tracking devices and negatively related to rapport-building devices by older adults. These results suggest that audience design and social relations are worth further study in language maintenance in older age.