ABSTRACT
As Hudson (1980) has pointed out, we make a very subtle use of the language variability that is available to us. It allows us as speakers to locate ourselves in a multi-dimensional society and as hearers to locate others in that society as well. Age, like gender, profession, social class, and geographic or ethnic origin, has often been studied as one of the factors that locates us in society and causes language variation. One of the ways that I described myself was by my age and generation: a 51-year-old 'baby boomer', and one of the factors that I felt would influence the way I talk in a given situation was the age of my conversational partner. To see how the ages of the speakers can give conversations a characteristic 'flavour', look at the three conversations below. Which one involves two teenage girls, which one involves an adult and a toddler, and which one involves an elderly person and a younger adult?
