| There exists a strong tendency – both on the part of participants and outside observers – to treat linguistic change as a process that takes place across static generational grids. However, age needs to be treated as more than just an independent variable; it is a dimension of identity as complex and constructed as gender, race, or class. This is especially true in contexts where language shift is taking place. In this essay, I take a critical look at how the notions of inter-generational relations and youth identity have been employed by linguists and linguistic anthropologists and offer some suggestions about how to investigate the linguistic dimensions of generational identity. 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. |