'Critical' Age

[A. Vine]

"Aaron E. Drews" wrote:
>
>
> My question: is there a 'critical age' when we stop acquiring new forms
> (mostly lexical items, since the critical age for other aspects of the
> grammar are more or less established).  dInIs obviously stopped aquiring
> new forms when he left high school.  I stopped around 18, too.
>
> One example in C&T lists 5 different age groups for Appalachian 'done':
> 8-11; 12-14; 15-18; 20-40;  40+. These categories strongly suggest a
> critical age of 18-ish and any new forms we acquire after 18 are flukes.
>
> It looks like I've answered my own question, but only based on three
> examples, two of which are self-reports.  Has anyone ever said "after 18,
> the use of innovative forms rapidly declines"?  Has anyone actually tried
> tying in the critical period hypothesis to sociolinguistics? Or has it
> only been hinted at as part of a bigger age-grading issue, as in C&T?
>

Well, I have a theory (which is mine and belongs to me - a-hem! The next thing I
will type will be my theory - a-hem!), and that theory is:

It seems that a lot of "young people's" vocabulary comes from a school/hanging
out environment.  It seems that new language is more likely to develop when a
group of folks are thrown into the same situation.  There is no more stable time
than school to produce this sort of environment.  Once folks leave school, the
only opportunity to be immersed in a large group experiencing something similar
is work.  Workplaces produce jargon, but it tends to be specific to the type of
work.  The reason young people's language is more universal is that their
immersion experience is more universal.  School covers a wide range of topics,
so it makes no sense to develop language around one of those topics.  Instead
the language centers around their common activities, like attending school,
going out with friends, buying things, sports and activites, etc.

I notice no-one mentions college-speak, but it definitely exists.  It is a less
universal experience, however.

Now, I realize that this is probably not an original theory.  I'm sure there are
studies somewhere which confirm this.  This is merely a theory based on
observation.
--
Andrea Vine, avine at eng.sun.com, iPlanet i18n architect
Guilty feet have got no rhythm.
-- George Michael