Age indicators in Chinese

[NV16016]

Hello, fellow Chinese learners! I’m writing a paper on words/expressions/grammar/phonetic features that can help distinguish between different generations of native Chinese speakers, so it’s a sort of paper on age differentiation in Chinese language. Could anyone recommend me some materials I could use – both theoretical and practical (perhaps there is an interview or a movie where you can see the differences between speakers of different generations /ages clearly, so I could describe it)? Thank you!

[thelearninglearner]

really interesting to think about. from the top of my head i can only think of some slang. But I will look into this too

[Leslie Frank]

Here's some research:

 

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2331186X.2016.1161958

 

https://era.library.ualberta.ca/items/bc204d6c-37a7-4eb3-869a-4e4592d30a5a/view/da83a6ba-e167-428d-bf8a-e54c495e844d/Cheung_June_M_201903_MSc.pdf

https://repository.usfca.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2344&context=thes

 

You really can't ignore how much English is influencing all languages the world over.

[roddy]

Any kind of big family tv show should work, as everyone will refer to people based on relative ages / role. But I can’t think of any. 

[889]

Chinese culture supposedly reveres age, but a pair of hunched-over comedians mocking the elderly is nonetheless a staple of Chinese variety shows. Perhaps you can note something in the speech patterns of these.

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NqFLDZ3HVec

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_PK7V_CexqE

 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wkDC168Q0VM

[Jim]

Another very obvious thing in a lot of places if not most will be ability in putonghua, with the younger people knowing more and having a standard accent and their elders more comfortable in their native language or dialect.