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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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| "They talk to us like children": language and intergenerational relations in first-time encounters in an African township | | Author(s) | S B Makoni |
| Journal title | Southern African Journal of Gerontology, vol 5, no 1, April 1996 |
| Pages | pp 9-14 |
| Keywords | Older women ; Young people ; Cognitive processes ; Social interaction ; Social roles ; Africa. |
| Annotation | This paper analyses language discourse in first-time encounters between young and older Xhosa-speaking women in an African township. Forms of address, stories and complaints are analysed in terms of generational differences and similarities in identity ascription. Young women identify themselves on the basis of their ethnic membership and class, while older women do so on the basis of family relations and implied ethnic membership, which can be gleaned from their name and place of birth or origin. The discourse is marked by frequent complaints by older women to young women about the youth. Some complaints may be interpreted as masked forms of bragging. Older women complain that younger people talk to them like children, but their words were initially used by the youth to describe older women. Within their use of language older women try to reinforce traditional power to withstand youth power and to retains some influence, even within non-familial intergenerational encounters. |
| Accession Number | CPA-971113225 A |
| Classmark | BD: SB: DA: TMA: TM5: 7J |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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