OLD AGE AND THE AGEING INDIVIDUAL: SOCIAL AND LINGUISTIC ASPECTS

Abstract

The article addresses the issues of representation of old age and the ageing individual in the discourse of sociology. The topicality of such works is quite obvious, since with the increase in life expectancy, many academic studies have focused on old age and its new meanings in societies from different perspectives. This predetermines the need for the interdisciplinary analysis of old age and the ageing self. Also, this study closely examines vocabulary units that are used to designate an older person in English. The material for the analysis has been selected from present-day lexicographical sources. We conducted a qualitative study using the analysis of dictionary definitions and defined attitudes and perceptions of ageing and older adults as encoded in language units. The research highlights that as a socio-cultural product, language is influenced by two views on ageing: successful ageing, ignoring the physical dimensions, and that of decline, creating negative stereotypes of ageing, associated with weakening, diseases and dependence of the person. The paper addresses the above questions from the perspective of linguistic ageism, manifested in vocabulary units describing older people as silly, incompetent, eccentric, with outmoded fixed ideas, attitudes or tastes. Viewed in a positive light, ageing individuals are represented in language as experienced people, with wisdom and respect, when old age means transformation and continued self-fulfilment, rather than decline. The findings of the analysis provide implications or further studies of old age in different discourses that will contribute to a deeper understanding of the notion old age in its social and cultural contexts, as well as the concept OLD AGE in general.