Language Development : The lifespan perspective

This paper focuses on the writing of compound words in the private journals of Thomas Mann (1875–1955) and Harry Graf Kessler (1868–1937),\* with special attention to their later years. It will be established that the percentage of closed compound words decreases with time while hyphenated compound words, medial capital spelling and separate spelling increase – resulting in a greater variety of compounds. Endogenous and exogenous factors influencing their writing will also be examined. The variability of compounds outside the orthographic norm increases noticeably in conjunction with the age of the authors. The main aim of this paper is to discuss whether and to what extent these spellings can be interpreted as signs of old age.\*\* Language Development: The lifespan perspective generates insights into the central issues of age-dependent language change, focusing especially on the middle and later stages of life. The contributors exploit contemporary and historical longitudinal data, adopting psycholinguistic, corpus linguistic and sociolinguistic approaches. Linguistic changes are discussed against the background of cognitive, somatic and social factors. Bringing the resulting contributions together, the volume aims to resume the discussion of contradictions between the models of change and constancy over an individual's lifespan that have not been sufficiently resolved to date. The volume is intended to serve as an interdisciplinary reference resource for those conducting research on language development and the aging process and as a supplementary course book on language variability and change.