Lecture 7

In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to

convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into
another form or representation, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication
through a channel or storage in a medium.
The term ‘code’ can be used to refer to any kind of system that two or more people
employ for communication (It can actually be used for system used by a single
person, as when someone devises a private code to protect certain secrets). The
process of encoding converts information from a source into symbols for
communication or storage. Decoding is the reverse process, converting code
symbols back into a form that the recipient of that understands time.
There are codes using colors, like traffic lights, the color code employed to mark
the nominal value of the electrical resistors or that of the trashcans devoted to
specific types of garbage (paper, glass, biological, etc.) In marketing, coupon codes
can be used for a financial discount or rebate when purchasing a product from an
internet retailer. In military environments, specific sounds with the cornet are used
for different uses: to mark some moments of the day, to command the infantry in
the battlefield, etc.
The two types of language codes are the elaborated code and the restricted code.
Diglossia is a situation where two very different varieties of language cooccur
throughout speech community, each with a distinct range of social function. A
diglossic situation exists in a society when it has two distinct codes which show
clear functional separation; that is, one is employed in one set of circumstances and
the other in an entirely different set.
In a multilingual society, people are usually forced to select a particular code
whenever they choose to speak, and they may also decide to switch from one code
to another or to mix codes. The situations which bring a speaker to choose a certain
code are solidarity with listeners, choice of topic, and perceived social and cultural
distance.