DISCOURSE OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY: THE PROBLEM OF LINGUISTIC REPRESENTATION OF AGEISM

DISCOURSE OF SOCIAL INEQUALITY: THE PROBLEM OF LINGUISTIC REPRESENTATION OF AGEISM

Author:  O.G. Chupryna

Affiliation:  Moscow City University

Abstract:  Studies of ageism discourse are following the trend in research of gender and race discourses which shape the discourse of social inequality in the English language.
The subject matter of the article is linguistic forms reflecting ambivalent attitude to old age and their role in English ageism discourse. The aim of the article is to reveal characteristic features of speech interaction of different age groups that are based on the existing social stereotypes. The research is based on English mass-media publications, caregiver’s manuals and surveys. The method employed is the interpretation of the utterance forms and their senses.
As a result of the research, the author argues, senses of ageism are embedded into semantics of both – separate words and discourse fragments. Ageism in language and discourse is a matter of modality, which presupposes that the subject and object of the utterance or name giving are connected by the predicate of assessment.
The author suggests there may be a new approach to the study of age conscious linguistic expressions and puts forward the definition of ageism discourse which is split into three types: institutionalized ageism discourse, internalized ageism discourse and ageism discourse proper.

Keywords:  ageism discourse, Elderspeak, age names, institutionalized ageism discourse,
internalized ageism discourse.

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For citation:  Chupryna, O. G. (2020). Discourse of social inequality: the problem of linguistic representation of ageism. Voprosy Kognitivnoy Lingvistiki, 1, 94-102. (In Russ.).

Pages:  94-102