Changing Minds: How Aging Affects Language and How Language Affects Aging by Roger Kreuz & Richard Roberts

Author:Roger Kreuz & Richard Roberts [Kreuz, Roger & Roberts, Richard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: General, Language Arts & Disciplines, psychology, Cognitive Psychology & Cognition, Language in adulthood; language and aging; language; aging; adult lifespan; cognition; cognition and aging; adult development; language decline; language enhancement
ISBN: 9780262042598
Google: 32yuDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2019-10-01T00:34:31.652013+00:00

5 Using Language

Pragmatic Competence

What does it mean to be a pragmatically competent language user? Among many other factors, pragmatic competence includes being polite, socially appropriate, and responsive to the needs and wants of others.1 A good example of pragmatic competence would be making small talk. Using language as a way to congenially pass the time requires a sophisticated understanding of context, social conventions, and shared knowledge. Another skill one needs to be pragmatically competent is knowing how to vary the level of deference depending on the size of a request. Minor impositions, such as asking for a sheet of paper, may only require the use of the word “please,” whereas more consequential requests, like a ride to the airport, might require a greater display of need and gratitude.

One important aspect of the pragmatic skill required to carry on a conversation is the ability to remember what is (and is not) in the shared common ground. It appears, however, that older adults may not always take into account what their listeners know and do not know. In one study of this phenomenon, younger (age: 24) and older (age: 68) Dutch adults were asked to narrate comic stories to another person who was either familiar or unfamiliar with the story. When the story was new to the other person, the younger adults were more accommodating and included more words and gestures in their storytelling. The older adults did not accommodate to the needs of the listener as much.2

A frequent complaint of older adults is that they experience difficulty in following and understanding conversations. If cognitive decline, such as changes in memory and executive function, occurs in tandem with perceptual decline—poorer vision and hearing—then it becomes less clear which factor is responsible. Disentangling cognitive and perceptual deficits can be a challenge, but some research suggests that older adults’ difficulty with conversation is more perceptual than it is cognitive.3 For example, in a group setting, older adults may not effectively use auditory cues that indicate who is speaking. However, they still know how to carry on a conversation.

Studies of spontaneous language use by older adults suggest that there may also be important gender differences. Impromptu descriptions of a picture by younger, middle-aged, and older Spanish-speaking participants revealed age-related decreases that were small for female subjects, but more pronounced for males.4 The paucity of spontaneous speech produced by the men could be construed as a lack of interest or even rudeness. Consequently, even the amount of language that one produces is significant. The study did not explore whether the difference between men and women was due to cognitive, social, or cultural factors, but it does suggest that pragmatic changes in older adulthood may play themselves out differently for men than for women.

Pragmatic competence is not limited to verbal expression. For example, in face-to-face interactions, people are typically sensitive to the eye gaze of their conversational partners: they will follow the other person’s glance at an object or a third party as a means of creating joint attention.

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