speech codes

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A First Look AtCOMMUNICATION THEORYSixth Edition

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32 Speech Codes Theory of Gerry Philipsen

Chapter ContentThe Distinctiveness of Speech CodesThe Multiplicity of Speech CodesThe Substance of Speech CodesThe Interpretation of Speech CodesThe Situation of Speech CodesThe Force of Speech Codes in DiscussionsPerformance Ethnography - (researching meanings within a culture)Critique: Different Speech Codes in Communication Theory


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Speech Code: “A historically enacted, socially constructed system of terms, meanings, premises, and rules, pertaining to communicative conduct.” (Philipsen)

Speech Codes is about culture within a culture. It is not about different countries or different ethnic backgrounds.

It shows a relationship between communication and culture

Definition


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Philipsen observed the culture of truck drivers in Southern USA. He named their culture Teamsterville and distinguished it from a typical USA white culture that he named Nacirema. Even though the people of Teamsterville spoke English, Philipsen noted that their whole pattern of speaking was radically different from the Nacirema speech code he knew and heard practiced within his own family of origin, his friends at school, and across many talk shows on radio and TV.

Teamsterville and Nacirema


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One characteristic feature of Nacirema speech code is a pre-occupation with metacommunication—their talk about talk (the way teenage boys and young men grunt or young girls giggle) as a way of communicating.

Philipsen was raised in a Nacirema type situation

It has 6 propositions


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1. Every culture has a distinctive speech code and 2. Sometimes many distinctive

Speech Codes

A speech code infuses a belonging to place.It is less concerned with speech as grammar and

pronunciation and more with a uniqueness associated with a place.

We would now include non-verbal communication and signs, symbols and images

as being a part of a speech code.


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Until his research in Teamsterville, he hadn’t thought of his or his family’s communication as a particular cultural practice.

It marks individuals in a certain way and psychologically identifies them as a linkage between self and others.

It creates a self image for the person and a sense of personal dignity.

It uses rhetoric for the individual to adapt to the values of his/her community.

3. A speech code involves a culturally distinct sociology and rhetoric


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Philipsen recently added this proposition to his previous five propositions.

He observed times when people are affected by other

codes or employ dual codes at the same time.

In Teamsterville men, he noticed they gauged their relative worth by comparing their style of talk with residents in other city neighborhoods; even though they stress the unified nature of their neighborhood speech patterns.

3. There is a multiplicity of Speech Codes


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Any attempt made to “improve” speech would be regarded as an act of disloyalty--leading to alienation.

Yet, some men were reassured by their perceived ability to speak better than those they refer to as lower-class “Hillbillies, Mexicans, and Africans.”

Awareness of other speech codes is equally strong among the Nacirema: Good talk or “meaningful dialogue” as opposed to “mere talk.”

Do you see a connection here with Genderlect styles of conversation??

The Multiplicity of Speech Codes


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The practice of the speech code creates the meaning. Whatever the culture, the speech code reveals structures of self, society, and strategic action.

The words by themselves do not create the meaning.

It is a practice of relationships rather than a practice of communication.

It is acted otherwise you do not belong.

4. A speech code has a significance to create or interpret meaning


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Three functions of social life reflected by speech code: Psychology: Every speech code “thematizes” the

nature of individuals in a particular way. Sociology: A speech code provides a system of

answers about what linkages between self and others can properly be sought, and what symbolic resources can properly and efficaciously be employed in seeking those linkages.

Rhetoric: It has a persuasive appeal – you either belong or you do not – there is no half measure.

It is their practice. They decide what it means.

In the words of the theorist


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If we want to understand the significance of prominent speech practices within a culture, we must listen to the way people talk about it and respond to it.

They are terms, rules, symbols and premises woven into the speaking.

These might not be accessible through normal conversation.

They are the rules of life associated with the place, dignity, gender role and expression of self.

These rules of life become a ritual.

5. Interpretation of Speech Codesis a conduct or acting


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1. Close relationships contrast with distant affiliations.

2. Open relationships in which parties listen and demonstrate a willingness to change are distinct from routine associations where people are stagnant.

3. Supportive relationships in which people are totally “for” the other person stand in opposition to neutral interactions.

The Interpretation of Speech Codes – Acting the code

Three Distinguishing Dimensions of Speech


The Interpretation of Speech Codes – Acting the code

The code predicts, controls and explains the conduct of communication using the act of speech – and (updating the theory) also the

acts of body language and semiotics.

It shows what speech is legitimate to use and when to use it (morality of use).

It is about the acting or performance of speech

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Speech codes are on public display as people speak; they are open to scrutiny by anyone who cares enough to take a long look.

Social dramas are public confrontations in which one party invokes a moral rule to challenge the conduct of another.

The response from the person criticised offers a way of testing and validating the legitimacy of the “rules of life that are embedded in a particular speech code.

In the theorists words….


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Initiation

Acknowledgment

Negotiation

Reaffirmation

By performing the communication ritual correctly, both parties celebrate the central tenet of the Nacirema code: “Whatever the problem, communication is the answer.”

6. Learning how to communicate the speech code by involvement helps understand the metacommunication used

The Ritual Sequence


In other words….There is a sense of theatre that is unique to the culture.The performance of speech is acted and provides the cultural bias and limitations that define the situation and the hierarchy of power.Relationships are formed by appealing to or belonging to the speech code.

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Does the knowledge of people’s speech codes in a given situation help an observer or participant predict or control what others will say and how they’ll interpret what is said?

Philipsen thinks it does. His proposition 6 claims that we can control, predict and explain communication by the use of the speech code metacommunication.

If so then talk about the clarity, appropriateness, and ethics of a person’s communication is an important feature of everyday life.

Questions of evaluation???


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Principles of performance ethnography:

Performance is both the subject and the method of performance ethnography.

All social interactions are performance.

Researchers are co-performers.

The goal of performance ethnographies is to produce actable ethnographies.

Performance ethnography almost always takes place more among marginalized groups. WHY??? HOW???

Philipsen talks about his research as Performance Ethnography


Why??? How???

Because marginalised groups (see Muted Group Theory) use

communication power factors to hold the group together, make the group

distinctive and form a basis of challenging established power

hierarchies in society.McGraw-Hill


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Most ethnographers applaud Philipsen’s commitment to long-term participant observation and his perceptive interpretations, but they are critical of his efforts to generalize across cultures.

Theorists who operate from a feminist, critical, or cultural studies perspective charge that he is silent and perhaps naïve about power relationships.

“For most speech code researchers, their open eyes and listening ears are directed to what the people being studied, in a given inquiry, insert into the discourse they produce and find in the discourse they experience.” (Philipsen)

Critique: Different Speech Codes in Communication Theory


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At the time some critics wanted more scientific rigor before he made his generalizations.

They wanted ore data sets than the two Philipsen presented. The Teamsterville and Nacirema codes are so diametrically opposed, it’s tempting to believe that we can divide the world into two cultural clusters.

Modern use of the theory overcomes this to some degree.

Critique: Different Speech Codes in Communication Theory


Using the theory

From an ethnological viewpoint we can learn how others see the world (their perceptions)and the basic communication model shows

how different perceptions are the main blockages to effective communication

(understanding and acceptance).

It explains/predicts how speech is communicated but does not explain how

culture (and power relationships) influence speech in the first place.

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Using the theory Face Negotiation Theory defines the use of power in

collectivistic (high context) and individualistic (low context) cultures and the boundaries that would define a speech community (culture).

Power distance is (resulting in the type of facework used) used differently in the two cultures

Use of Power is part of communication and

performance of speech defines the hierarchy of power.

Unlike Face Negotiation power is not reduced to a single issue. Power is in the performance of speech and we can now add the performance of body language and semiotics to the mix.

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