Differences in power are frequent in institutional care settings and provide contexts in which conflict can occur. In order to examine the power imbalance between residents and caregivers and the consequent potential for verbal conflict we first discuss the situations in which persons with dementia (PWD) find themselves within long-term residential care institutions and the interactions they commonly experience with those who care for them. We then examine strategies commonly used by conversational partners that either support or hinder the attempts by PWD to interact competently. The strategies may lead to cooperative conversations or verbal conflicts. They include caregiver marginalization as well as joking and teasing, both of which may serve to positively support PWD or can minimize conflict (Offord et al. 2006; Schnurr and Chan 201l) and can be initiated by both residents and caregivers. The final section contains case studies of interactions with two PWD, “Madge” and “Maureen”, to illustrate the minimization and the positive and negative use of joking and teasing in interactions with PWD. We conclude with a brief discussion with “Maureen” on joking and deliberate repression of conflict.
Alberts, Jess, Yvonne Kellar-Guenther, and Steven Corman. 1996. “That’s not Funny: Understanding Recipients’ Responses to Teasing.” Western Journal of Communication 60 (4): 337–357.
Almor, Amit, Daniel Kempler, Maryellen MacDonald, Elaine Andersen, and Lorraine Tyler. 1999. “Why do Alzheimer Patients have Difficulty with Pronouns? Working Memory, Semantics, and Reference in Comprehension and Production in Alzheimer’s Disease.” Brain and Language 671: 202–227.
Backhaus, Peter. 2009. “Politeness in Institutional Elderly Care in Japan.” Journal of Politeness Research 51: 53–71.
Ball, Mary, Michael Lepore, Molly Perkins, Carole Hollingsworth, and Mark Sweatman. 2009. “‘They are the Reason I Come to Work’: The Meaning of Resident-Staff Relationships in Assisted Living.” Journal of Aging Studies 23 (1): 37–47.
Banerjee, Albert, Daly, Tamara, Armstrong, Pat, Szebehely, Marta, Armstrong, Hugh, Lafrance, Stirling. 2012. Structural violence in long-term, residential care for older people. Social Science & Medicine 741: 390–398.
Banerjee, Albert, Armstrong, Pat, Daly, Tamara, Armstrong, Hugh, Bradley, Susan. 2015. ”Careworkers don’t have a voice:” Epistemological violence in residential care for older people. Journal of Aging Studies 331: 28–36.
Beck Cornelia, Kathy Richards, Corinne Lambert, Rebecca Doan, Reid Landes, Ann Whall, Donna Algase, Ann Kolanowski, and Zachary Feldman. 2011. “Factors Associated with Problematic Vocalizations in Nursing Home Residents with dementia.” The Gerontologist 51(3): 389–405.
Berdes, Celia, and John Eckert. 2001. “Race Relations and Caregiving Relationships: A Qualitative Examination of Perspectives and Nurse’s Aides in Three Nursing Homes. Research on Aging 231: 109–126.
Boström, Anne-Marie, Janet Squires, Agnes Mitchell, Anne Sales, and Carole Estabrooks. 2012. “Workplace Aggression Experienced by Frontline Staff in Dementia Care.” Journal of Clinical Nursing 21 (9-10): 1453–1465.
Brown, Penelope, and Stephen Levinson. 1987. Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Code, Chris. 2011. “Nonfluent Aphasia and the Evolution of Proto-Language.” Journal of Neurolinguistics 241: 136–144.
Clark, Herbert H. 1985. “Language Use and Language Users.” In Handbook of Social Psychology, 3rd ed., edited by Gardner Lindzey, and Elliott Aronson, 179–231. New York: Harper and Row.
Culpeper, Jonathan. 2011. Impoliteness: Using Language to Cause Offence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Culpeper, Jonathan. 2012. “Epilogue: (Im)politeness: Three Issues.” Journal of Pragmatics 441: 1128–1133.
Daly, Tamara, Banerjee, Albert, Armstrong, Pat, Armstrong, Hugh, Szebehely, Marta. 2011. Lifting the “Violence Veil”: Examining working conditions in long-term care facilities using iterative mixed methods. Canadian Journal of Aging/La Revue canadienne du vieillissement 301: 271–284.
Davis, Boyd (ed.) 2005. Alzheimer Talk, Text and Context: Enhancing Communication. New York: Palgrave.
Davis, Boyd, and Margaret Maclagan. 2013. “Talking with Maureen: Extenders, and Formulaic Language in Small Stories and Canonical Narratives.” In Dialogue and Dementia: Cognitive and Communicative Resources for Engagement, edited by Robert Schrauf, and Nicole Mueller, 87–120. New York: Psychology Press.
Davis, Boyd, Margaret Maclagan, and Dena Shenk. 2014. “Exploring Communicative Interactions between Visitors and Assisted-living Residents with Dementia.” In Routledge Handbook of Language and Health Communication, edited by Heidi Hamilton and Sylvia Chou, 344–361. NY: Routledge.
Davis, Boyd, and Charlene Pope. 2010. “Institutionalized Ghosting: Policy Contexts and Language Use in Erasing the Person with Alzheimer’s.” Language Policy 91: 29–44.
Davis, Boyd, and Mary Smith. 2011. “Dementia Care Communication in Residential Facilities: Intersections of Training and Research.” In Communication in Elderly Care, edited by Peter Backhaus, 20–39. London: Continuum.
De Bot, Kees, and Sinfree Makoni. 2005. Language and Aging in Multilingual Contexts. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.
Dijkstra, Katinka, Michelle Bourgeois, Lou Burgio, and Rebecca Allen. 2002. “Effects of a Communication Intervention on the Discourse of Nursing Home Residents with Dementia and their Nursing Assistants.” Journal of Medical Speech-Language Pathology 10 (2): 43–58.
Drew, Paul, and John Heritage. 1992. Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Duchan, Judith, Madeline Maxwell, and Dana Kovarsky. 1999. “Introduction: Evaluating Competence in the Course of Everyday Interaction.” In Constructing (In)competence: Disabling Evaluations in Clinical and Social Interaction, edited by Dana Kovarsky, Judith Duchan, and Madeline Maxwell, 3–27. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Frankel, Richard. 2002. “The (Socio)linguistic Turn in Physician-Patient Communication Research.” In Linguistics, Language, and the Professions, edited by James Alatis, Heidi Hamilton, and Ai-Hu Tan. Georgetown University Round Table 2000. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press.
Galtung, Johan. 1969. “Violence, Peace, and Peace Research.” Journal of Peace Research, 6(3): 167–191.
Gautier, Serge, Jeffrey Cummings, Clive Ballard, Henry Brodaty, George Grossberg, Philippe Robert, and Constantine Lyketsos. 2010. “Management of Behavioral Problems in Alzheimer’s Disease.” International Psychogeriatrics 22 (3): 346–372.
Goffman, Erving. 1955. “On Face-work: An Analysis of Ritual Elements of Social Interaction.” Psychiatry: Journal for the Study of Interpersonal Processes 18(3): 213–231.
Goodwin, Charles. 1996. Review, Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings. Language in Society 25 (4): 616–620.
Graham, Sage. 2009. “Hospitalk: Politeness and Hierarchical Structures in Interdisciplinary Discharge Rounds.” Journal of Politeness Research 5 (1): 11–31.
Grainger, Karen. 2004. “Communication and the Institutionalized Elderly.” In Handbook of Communication and Aging Research, 2nd ed., edited by Jon F. Nussbaum, and Justine Coupland, 479- 497. Mahwah and London: Laurence Erlbaum Associates.
Grice, Herbert P. 1975. “Logic and Conversation.” In Syntax and Semantics 3: Speech Acts, edited by Paul Cole, and Jerry L. Morgan, 41–58. New York: Academic Press.
Gubrium, Jaber. 1997. Living and Dying at Murray Manor (Extended edition). Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.
Hall, Kira, and Mary Bucholtz. 2013. “Epilogue: Facing Identity.” Journal of Politeness Research 9 (1): 123–132.
Haugh, Michael. 2010. “Jocular Mockery, (Dis)affiliation, and Face. Journal of Pragmatics 421: 2106–2119.
Haugh, Michael. 2013. “Im/politeness, Social Practice and the Participation Order.” Journal of Pragmatics 581: 52–72.
Hymes, Dell. 1966. “Two Types of Linguistic Relativity.” In Sociolinguistics, edited by William Bright, 114–158. The Hague: Mouton.
Isaksson, Ult, Ulla Graneheim, Sture Åstrom, and Stig Karlsson. 2011. “Resident Behaviour in Dementia Care: Characteristics of Residents and Management of Violent Situations.” Aging and Mental Health, 15 (5): 573–579.
Jay, Timothy, and Kristin Janschewitz. 2008. “The Pragmatics of Swearing.” Journal of Politeness Research 41: 267–288.
Kakavá, Christina. 2005. “Discourse and Conflict.” In The Handbook of Discourse Analysis, edited by Deborah Schiffrin, Deborah Tannen, and Heidi E. Hamilton, 650–670. Oxford: Blackwell.
Keltner, Dacher, Lisa Capps, Ann Kring, Randall Young, and Erin Heerey. 2001. “Just Teasing: A Conceptual Analysis and Empirical Review.” Psychological Bulletin 1271: 229–248.
Lachs, Mark, Tony Rosen, Jeanne A. Teresi, Joseph P. Eimicke, Mildred Ramirez, Stephanie Silver, and Karl Pillemer. 2012. “Verbal and Physical Aggression Directed at Nursing Home Staff by Residents.” Journal of General and Internal Medicine 28 (5): 660–667.
Lane, Heather Patricia, Sue-Anne McLachlan, and Jennifer Philip. 2013. “The War against Dementia: Are We Battle Weary Yet?” Age and Ageing 42 (3): 281–283.
Laplante, Debi, and Nalini Ambady. 2003. “On How Things Are Said: Voice Tone, Voice Intensity, Verbal Content, and Perceptions of Politeness.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 221: 434–441.
Leech, Geoffrey. 1983. Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman,
Locher, Miriam, and Richard Watts. 2005. “Politeness Theory and Relational Work.” Journal of Politeness Research 11: 9–33.
Lyketsos, Constantine, Cynthia Steele, Elizabeth Galik, Adam Rosenblatt, Martin Steinberg, Andrew Warren, and Jennie-Marie Sheppard. 1999. “Physical Aggression in Dementia Patients and its Relationship to Depression.” American Journal of Psychiatry 1561: 66–71.
Maclagan, Margaret, and Annabel Grant. 2011. “Care of People with Alzheimer’s Disease in New Zealand: Supporting the Telling of Life Stories.” In Communication in Elderly Care, edited by Peter Backhaus, 62–89. London: Continuum.
Marsden, Sharon, and Janet Holmes. 2014. “Talking to the Elderly in New Zealand Residential Care Settings.” Journal of Pragmatics 641: 17–34.
McLean, Athena. 2006. The Person in Dementia: A Study of Nursing Home Care in the U.S. Toronto: Broadview Press.
Mishler, Elliot. 1984. The Discourse of Medicine: Dialectics of Medical Interviews. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
Mitchell, Gail, Sherry Dupuis, and Pia Kontos. 2013. “Dementia Discourse: From Imposed Suffering to Knowing Other-Wise.” Journal of Applied Hermeneutics, June 2013, Article 5, [URL]
Norrick, Neal, and Alice Spitz. 2008. “Humor as a Resource for Mitigating Conflict in Interaction.” Journal of Pragmatics 401: 1661–1686.
Offord, Rosslyn, Gillian Hardy, Caroline Lamers, and Louise Bergin. 2006. “Teaching, Teasing, Flirting and Fighting.” Dementia 5 (2): 167–195.
Peel, Elizabeth. 2014. “‘The Living Death of Alzheimer’s’ Versus ‘Take a Walk to Keep Dementia at Bay’: Representations of Dementia in Print Media and Carer Discourse.” Sociology of Health and Illness 36 (6): 885–901.
Persson, Tove, and David Wästerfors. 2009. “‘Such Trivial Matters:’ How Staff Account for Restrictions of Residents’ Influence in Nursing Homes.” Journal of Aging Studies 23 (1): 1–11.
Reeves, Scott, Kathleen Rice, Lesley Conn, Karen-Lee Miller, Chris Kenaszchuk, and Merrick Zwarenstein. 2009. “Interprofessional Interaction, Negotiation and Non-negotiation on General Internal Medicine Wards.” Journal of Interprofessional Care 23 (6): 633–645.
Rubin, Gerald, Rengarajan Balaji, and Robert Barcikowski. 2009. “Barriers to Nurse/nursing aide Communication: The Search for Collegiality in a Southeast Ohio Nursing Home.” Journal of Nursing Management 171: 822–832.
Ryvicker, Miriam. 2009. “Preservation of Self in the Nursing Home: Contradictory Practices within Two Models of Care.” Journal of Aging Studies 231: 12–23.
Sabat, Steven. 2008. “Positioning and Conflict Involving a Person with Dementia: A Case Study.” In Global Conflict Resolution through Positioning Theory, edited by Fathali Moghaddam, Rom Harré, and Naomi Lee, 81–93. New York: Springer.
Schnurr, Stephanie, and Angela Chan. 2011. “When Laughter is not Enough. Responding to Teasing and Self-denigrating Humour at Work.”Journal of Pragmatics 431: 20–35.
Scollon, Ron, Suzanne Scollon, and Rodney Jones. 2012. Intercultural Communication: A Discourse Approach. 3rd edn. NY: Wiley-Blackwell.
Sidtis, Diana Van Lancker. 2006. “Where in the Brain is Non-literal Language?” Metaphor and Symbol 211: 213–244.
Sifianou, Maria. 2010. “Linguistic Politeness: Laying the Foundations.” In Interpersonal Pragmatics, edited by Miriam Locher and Sage Graham, 17–41. Berlin: de Gruyter.
Sifianou, Maria. 2012. “Disagreements, Face and Politeness.” Journal of Pragmatics 441: 1554–1564.
Small, Jeff, and Julian Montoro-Rodriguez. 2006. “Conflict Resolution Styles: A Comparison of Assisted Living and Nursing Home Facilities.” Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 32 (1): 39–45.
Sprangers, Suzan, Dijkstra, Katinka, Romijin-Luijten, Anna. 2015. Communication skills training in a nursing home: Effects of a brief intervention on residents and nursing aides. Clinical Interventions in Aging, 101: 311–319.
Stalnaker, Robert. 2002. “Common Ground.” Linguistics and Philosophy 251: 701–721.
Stone, Teresa, Margaret Macmillan, and Michael Hazleton. 2010. “Swearing: Its Prevalence in Healthcare Settings and Impact on Nursing Practice.” Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing 171: 528–534.
Tannen, Deborah. 2013. “The Argument Culture: Agonism and the Common Good.” Daedalus, 142 (2): 177–184.
Temple, Valerie, Steven Sabat, and Rolf Kroger. 1999. “Intact Use of Politeness in the Discourse of Alzheimer’s Sufferers.” Language and Communication 191: 163–180.
Williams, Kristine, Susan Kemper, and Mary Lee Hummert. 2009. “Improving Nursing Home Communication: An Intervention to Reduce Elderspeak.” The Gerontologist 43 (2): 242–247.
Zeilig, Hannah. 2014. “Dementia as a Cultural Metaphor.” The Gerontologist, 54 (2): 258–267.
2023. Synopsis and Future Directions. In An Ethno-Social Approach to Code Choice in Bilinguals Living with Alzheimer’s, ► pp. 241 ff.
Schneider, Carolin
2023. Understanding the Continuum of Dementia of the Alzheimer’s Type and Communication Profiles in Its Context. In An Ethno-Social Approach to Code Choice in Bilinguals Living with Alzheimer’s, ► pp. 7 ff.
Schneider, Carolin & Besa Qalaj
2023. “¿Cómo te sientes? – With my butt!”: code-choice-related humor in bilingual speakers living with dementia of the Alzheimer’s type. Journal of Language and Aging Research 1:1 ► pp. 27 ff.
du Toit, Sanetta H. J., Sarah Jane Fitch, Glenda Madeleine Jessup & Lee Fay Low
2021. The residential environment impact scale: Benefits and barriers to implementation in the Australian residential aged care facility context. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal 68:6 ► pp. 477 ff.
Davis, Boyd H. & Margaret A. Maclagan
2020. UH as a pragmatic marker in dementia discourse. Journal of Pragmatics 156 ► pp. 83 ff.
Wilkinson, Dean & Laura Caulfield
2020. A systematic review of the characteristics and needs of older prisoners. Journal of Criminal Psychology 10:4 ► pp. 253 ff.
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 9 january 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.