Slide 1

A First Look At
COMMUNICATION THEORY
Sixth Edition

McGraw-Hill
McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Slide 2

32 Speech Codes Theory

of Gerry Philipsen

Chapter Content
The Distinctiveness of Speech Codes
The Multiplicity of Speech Codes
The Substance of Speech Codes
The Interpretation of Speech Codes
The Situation of Speech Codes
The Force of Speech Codes in Discussions
Performance Ethnography - (researching meanings within a
culture)
Critique: Different Speech Codes in Communication Theory

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 Slide 3

Definition
 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
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 Slide 4

Teamsterville and Nacirema

 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.
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 Slide 5

Philipsen was raised in a Nacirema

type situation
It has 6 propositions
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.

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 Slide 6

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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 Slide 7

3. A speech code involves a culturally

distinct sociology and rhetoric
 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.

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 Slide 8

3. There is a multiplicity of
Speech Codes
 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.
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 Slide 9

The Multiplicity of Speech

Codes
 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??
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 Slide 10

4. A speech code has a significance

to create or interpret meaning
 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.
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 Slide 11

In the words of the theorist

 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.
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 Slide 12

5. Interpretation of Speech Codes

is a conduct or acting
 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.
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 Slide 13

The Interpretation of Speech Codes

– Acting the code
 Three Distinguishing Dimensions of Speech
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.
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 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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 Slide 15

In the theorists words….

 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.

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 Slide 16

6. Learning how to communicate the speech

code by involvement helps understand the
metacommunication used

 The Ritual Sequence

 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.”

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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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 Slide 18

Questions of evaluation???
 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
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life.
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Slide 19

Philipsen talks about his research as

Performance Ethnography
 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???

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 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.
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 Slide 21

Critique: Different Speech Codes

in Communication Theory
 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)
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 Slide 22

Critique: Different Speech Codes

in Communication Theory
 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.
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 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.
McGraw-Hill © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 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
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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.
© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.