ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to seek rules of discourse operating within and below the variable play of language on the surface of the field. The rules of the language-game, its grammar, simultaneously determine both the use of the linguistic sign and the essential features of the object. The rules can be described through the structural dynamics and possibilities of meaning, including structured ambiguity, of a semiotic square encompassing the term independence. The chapter shows that humanitarian concern for the elderly enters the field of gerontology as a circuit of discourse between two lexical clusters: one centred on the term care and the other on dependence. The return of discourse from “dependence” to “care” enacts an instrumental rationality belonging to what is called, within the field, applied gerontology. Description of usage is the basis of grammatical analysis. The chapter examines the variety of use more closely in order to detail the connection of compound dependency to cognitive clarity.
