ABSTRACT

This is not to deny the fact that lexical change and innovation is widespread. Frequently, of course, it reflects change in society, as is shown by the following article which appeared in a New Zealand newspaper during 1988: A senior citizen is one who was here before the Pill, before television, frozen food, credit cards or ball point pens. For us, time-sharing meant togetherness, not computers, and a chip meant a piece of wood. Hardwear [sic] meant hard wear, and software wasn't even a word. Teenagers never wore slacks. We were before pantyhose, drip-dry clothes, dishwashers, clothes driers and electric blankets. Girls wore Peter Pan collars and

thought that cleavage was something that butchers did. We were before Batman, vitamin pills, disposable nappies, jeeps, pizzas and instant coffee, and Kentucky Fried had not even been hatched. In our day, cigarette smoking was fashionable, grass was for mowing and pot was something you cooked in. A gay person was the life and soul of the party, and nothing more, while AIDS meant beauty lotions or help for someone in trouble. We are today's senior citizens. A hardy bunch, when you think how the world has changed and of the adjustments we have had to make. The list given here barely scratches the surface of the lexical changes which have taken place this century. To begin with, there were no senior citizens in New Zealand fifty years ago.