Communication Theory (Speech Codes Theory)

Speech Codes TheoryGerry Philipsen

Tara Wilkinson-McClean. PhD Candidate

Media + Communications Lecturer

Key Terms

Speech Code: System of socially constructed symbols and meanings, premises, and rules, pertaining to communicative conduct.

Ethnography: The work of a naturalist who watches, listens and records communicative conduct in its natural setting in order to understand a culture’s concept web of meaning.

Research Method TEAMSTERVILLE

3 years

Community in Chicago

kids on street corners, women on front porches, men in bars, people at settlement house where he worked

NACIREMA

America spelt backwards

Santa Barbara, Seattle, mostly west cost of US

intelligible to, and practiced by, a majority of Americans.

Core ValuesTEAMSTERVILLE

Loyalty of neighbourhood culture - collectivistic

Male hierarchy

Code of honour

NACIREMA

Relationships to validate self esteem - individualistic

Egalitarian

Code of dignity

Goal of ResearchDevelop a general theory that would capture the relationship between communication and culture.Seeks to answer Qs about:

The existence of speech codesThe way speech codes can be discoveredThe force speech codes have on people within a culture

OverviewThere are situations where speech is necessary and appropriate and situations where less speech and more action are appropriateTo indicate that his theory has moved from description to explanation and prediction, he renames it:

(ethnography of communication speech codes theory)

Developed 6 general propositions.

Proposition # 1: Distinctiveness of Speech

Codes

Wherever there is a distinctive culture, there is to be found a distinctive speech code.

For those within the culture, speech codes have a taken-for-granted quality.

Proposition # 2:Multiplicity of Speech

Codes

In any given speech community, multiple speech codes are deployed.

People may be affected by other codes or employ more than one code.

Proposition # 3:Substance of Speech

CodesA speech code involves a culturally distinct psychology, sociology, and rhetoric.

Whatever the culture, the speech code reveals structures of self, society, and strategic action.

Proposition # 3:Substance of Speech

CodesPsychology: Every speech code thematizes the nature of individuals in a particular way.1.Sociology:  Every 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.2.Rhetoric: Every speech code involves ways to discover truth and create persuasive appeals.

Proposition # 4:Interpretation of Speech

Codes

The significance of speaking depends on the speech codes used by speakers and listeners to create and interpret their communication.

People in a culture decide what their prominent speech practices mean.

Proposition # 5:The Site of Speech

CodesThe terms, rules, and premises of a speech code are inextricably woven into speaking

itself.Highly structured cultural forms often display the cultural significance of symbols and

meanings, premises, and rules that might not be accessible through normal conversation.

Proposition # 6:The artful use of a shared speech code is a sufficient condition for predicting, explaining, and controlling

the form of discourse about the intelligibility, prudence, and morality of communication conduct.

By a thoughtful use of shared speech codes, participants can guide metacommunication - talk about talk

Performative Ethnography

Some researchers favor the concept of performing ethnography over doing ethnography.

A.Performative ethnography is grounded in several theoretical principles.

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

2.Researchers consider their work performative; they do not just observe performance but are co-performers.

3.Performance ethnographers are also concerned about performance when they report their fieldwork.*

A.Performance ethnography almost always takes place among marginalized groups

CritiqueA. Most interpretive scholars applaud Philipsen’s commitment

to long-term participant observation.B. However, they criticize his efforts to generalize across

cultures and his scientific goals of explanation, prediction, and control.

C. Theorists from feminist, critical, or cultural studies perspectives charge that he is silent—even naïve—about power relationships.

D. Empiricists wish that Philipsen backed his generalizations with more scientific rigor.

1. The Nacirema study raises a number of important methodological questions.

2. Philipsen needs more than two data sets—otherwise, his work suggests that there are only two cultural clusters.

Places & Situations with Speech Codes

Within culturesWorkplaceSocial Groups