ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author provides overview of the more explicit orientations to older age or ageing used by his participants, and discusses the kinds of attributes and other features that participants associated with ageing in their everyday salon talk. He shows how in their design of ageing-relevant terms and expressions participants distance themselves from the full decline-impact of those orientations to ageing. A chronological age or other ageing-relevant term or expression may acquire that ageing resonance from the preceding sequence, as in the following extract. The quantitative data from the salon talk support the view that physical limitations are the acceptable face of ageing. Across the 78 ageing-relevant terms and expressions, 30 associations were made with physical limitations of some sort. The extracts discussed show that relatively severe troubles – diseases like Parkinson’s and its effects – are associated by participants with ageing, alongside milder ailments like loss of flexibility and diminished energy.
