Discourse of ageing in the autumn of life. (c2009)

Abstract

This research study aimed at approaching the field of discourse and ageing from different disciplinary perspectives in order to gain a holistic understanding and insight into the ageing process. Accordingly, this study attempted to explore in one research question three different areas of enquiry that have served to center clusters of research in this field; language and communicative abilities in old age, identity in old age, and social values and practices in old age. Predicated on these premises, the research question eventually emerged: "How are the different linguistic and communicative abilities of the elderly, their personal identities, and their social values and practices revealed through their use of narrative in a Lebanese nursing home?" Since this question has already embodied a main context, the best type of research that substantially lent itself for the undertaken investigation was a case study that allowed a detailed analysis of the elderly individuals in this social unit. In an endeavor to unravel the research question, the method of analysis that had been eventually employed was discourse analysis. In this vein, the analytical tools that simultaneously steered this investigation were Labov's theoretical framework of natural narrative and Erikson's theory of personality development via observational and interviewing techniques. Contrary to research findings in the literature of discourse and ageing, the narratives of the elderly in this research investigation proved to be linguistically and ' communicatively densely-packed regardless of differences in chronological age. Moreover, the cultural context within which each elderly had formerly lived basically served as either empowering or constraining their own identities that were consequently mirrored in their discourse in old age. Findings had also revealed that the majority of the elderly conveyed the same social values and practices in discourse.