Research Page of the Speech Codes Theory
By: Melissa Garver

A Brief Overview of Speech Codes

The basic assumption of the speech codes theory, developed by Gerry Philipsen, is that it is "a system of socially constructed symbols and meanings, premises, and rules, pertaining to communicative conduct." He believes that these speech codes are learned with our family of origin, friends, and the media. Philipsen also thinks that where there is a specific culture there is a speech code. These codes involve culturally distinct psychology, sociology, and rhetoric. They are used to interpret, predict, and portray the speaker’s and receiver's communication sequences.

Now that we know the basic assumptions and aspects of the speech codes theory we can look at the article I research which applies this theory.


Communication or Just Mere Talk?

The article I read to provide further understanding of the speech codes theory was called "'What We Need Is Communication': 'Communication' As A Cultural Category In Some American Speech." taken from Communication Monographs was concerned with the definition that different people give the word communication. The authors, Tamar Katriel and Gerry Philipsen himself, were concerned with the question of "What differentiates that potent term 'communication' from 'mere talk' when Americans use it to discuss the quality of interpersonal life?" In other words, they wanted to know what definition people associated with these terms. They performed an evaluation on two females, which involved several unstructured interviews, a three-day journal describing their communication during those three days, and observations of each woman's communication conduct.

Informant One

Informant one (M), is a 36-year old female, divorced, and mother of two daughters. She has a degree in social work but is not utilizing her degree at this time, but is currently employed at home. She describes the difference between "small talk" and "real communication" as being that of speech with acquaintances and that of intimate speech with close friends, respectively. She feels that, throughout her life, the experiences with her ex-husband and parents have lacked "supportiveness", implying that their communication lacked a positive nature of interaction. M feels that to survive in the world, people need to be "thick skinned" because of the amount of hostility in it. She feels that is important to be open-minded and highly communicative with her children to help them get through life successfully and happily. From her life experiences, M feels that one's definition of "communication" comes from a person's beliefs on uniqueness and one's ability to be "open" to communication situations. Therefore, it is apparent that M's life experiences have influenced the way she interprets and portrays communication.

Informant Two

K is a 25-year old single, female, who has a degree in business administration. She works at a health food store during the day and a local bar two nights a week. She feels that it is important for herself to be a good communicator in that she is an "open" person to talk to. K believes that communication "exploits" the person as being seen as a resource of communication and a product of it at the same time. To K, it is a positive step to develop and improve communication skills, but to have a lack of growth in her communication would mean she would be getting nothing accomplished. "The only way to get ultimate experiences is to experience other people through communication", as she expressed it. She defines "small talk" as the level in a conversation that of "chit-chat" or filler words. "Real talk" would be expressed as analyzing one's communication or talking about how she communicates.


To Sum Things Up...

In summary, the authors of this article have concluded the following aspects.

**Human uniqueness makes "communication" both vitally important as well as problematic. If people are unique, the kind of mutual disclosure and acknowledgement expressed in communication provides a "bridge" from ourselves to others. But also in being unique, they lack the necessary aspects to provide interpersonal meaning and coordination.**

**CLOSE, SUPPORTIVE, and FLEXIBLE language is required to follow the cultural injunctions of "being yourself" and "being the self you want to be". In other words, "communication is a culturally distinctive solution to the universal problem of connecting the personal aspect to the communal aspect of a person.**

**Both of the informants described that they drew conclusions of the definitions involved in communication from what they had learned and experienced in their past relationships. This information supports the main aspects of the theory. So, you can see from the information discovered in this experiment, the definitions of "communication" were in fact related to our life experiences with culture, our family of origin, and our friends. This article helps to enforce our ideas about the article and learn more about the theory in real life situations. I would definitely recommend this article to anyone who is interested in learning more on the Speech Codes Theory. I also think that it an easy article to read and pick out the main ideas of the information presented.**



The Article I Researched

Fieldwork with Nacirema: Tamar Katriel and Gerry Philipsen, "'What We Need Is Communication': Communication as a Cultural Category in some American Speech," Communication Monographs, Vol.48, 1981, pp. 302-317.



LINKS

Go back to the Speech Codes Theory title page, by Matt Staiduhar.

To view a presentation given by Gerry Philipsen and other scholars Click Here.

This page was created by Melissa Garver and was last updated on March 10,1999.