![]() The variable is “stable” because gerunds like “working” have been pronounced as both “working” (more prestigious) and “workin’” (less prestigious) for hundreds of years. To look at the age-grading phenomenon, we’ll use the stable variable -ing/-in’ as an example. It is limited in that it applies mostly to white, middle- and upper-class people, but that is a problem that is now being addressed. This is still an area that’s being heavily researched, but linguist Penny Eckert created a framework that is still used as a source for linguistic age research. While everyone is different, there is a general pattern to how a person’s language changes throughout their lives, and it’s mostly because of social factors. There are a huge number of factors that contribute to how we speak, so it should be noted that any general statements about language are one part of a much larger story. One big cause of generational language gaps is that an individual’s language habits change throughout their lives, which is referred to in the linguistic community as age-grading. How Our Language Changes Throughout Our Lives Language naturally changes over time, and often within the span of one person’s lifetime, so it’s worth considering how age affects the way we talk. Still, there does seem to be a distinct difference in the way generations communicate, and millennials have enough slang to warrant articles that explain what they’re saying. Yes, if you define a language as being a mutually intelligible mode of communication, then of course we’re all speaking the same language. As it turns out, the answer isn’t obvious. There’s so much intergenerational bickering, you have to wonder if these people are even speaking the same language. There’s no end to articles declaring that millennials are “killing” various industries, which of course leads to a chorus of tweets that claim it is, in fact, the baby boomers’ fault that various companies are dying out. If you listen to sensationalized media reports, you would think that millennials and baby boomers are at war with one another.
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