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Speech Codes Theory
Gerry Philipsen

CULTURAL CONTEXT: INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Chapter 33
 Face Negotiation Theory
Gender and Communication 
Chapter 33
 Face Negotiation Theory
Gender and Communication 

Chapter Outline 9th Edition

  1. Introduction.
    1. Gerry Philipsen was influenced by linguist and anthropologist Dell Hymes.
    2. He spent three years analyzing the speech code of “Teamsterville.”
    3. A speech code is a system of socially constructed symbols and meanings, premises, and rules, pertaining to communicative conduct.
    4. He conducted a second multi-year study while teaching at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of Washington. 
      1. This study focused on the “Nacirema,” whose speech code is intelligible to, and practiced by, a majority of Americans.
      2. Its characteristic feature is a preoccupation with metacommunication.
    5. Philipsen’s ultimate goal was to develop a general theory that would capture the relationship between communication and culture.
      1. To indicate that his theory has moved from description to explanation and prediction, he labels his work speech codes theory.
      2. He has developed six general propositions.
  2.  The distinctiveness of speech codes.
    1. Proposition 1: Wherever there is a distinctive culture, there is to be found a distinctive speech code.
    2. For those within the culture, speech codes have a taken-for-granted quality.
  3. The multiplicity of speech codes.
    1. Proposition 2: In any given speech community, multiple speech codes are deployed.
    2. People may be affected by other codes or employ more than one code.
    3. Ethnographer Erving Goffman referred to this code switching as backstage behavior and documented the discrepancies in restaurants, schools, and mental institutions
  4. The substance of speech codes.
    1. Proposition 3:  A speech code involves a culturally distinct psychology, sociology, and rhetoric.
    2. Whatever the culture, the speech code reveals structures of self, society, and strategic action.
      1. Psychology: Every speech code thematizes the nature of individuals in a particular way.
      2. 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.
      3. Rhetoric: Every speech code involves ways to discover truth and create persuasive appeals.
  5. The interpretation of speech codes.
    1. Proposition 4: The significance of speaking depends on the speech codes used by speakers and listeners to create and interpret their communication.
    2. People in a culture decide what their prominent speech practices mean.
  6. The site of speech codes.
    1. Proposition 5: The terms, rules, and premises of a speech code are inextricably woven into speaking itself.
    2. The process of discovery takes time and a person with patience that is willing to listen and watch without preconceived notions.
    3. Philipsen is not a fan of assuming a culture is either individualistic or collectivistic.
    4. Highly structured cultural forms often display the cultural significance of symbols and meanings, premises, and rules that might not be accessible through normal conversation.
      1. Social dramas are public confrontations in which one party invokes a moral rule to challenge the conduct of another.
      2. Totemizing rituals involve careful performances of structured sequences of actions that pay homage to sacred objects.
  7. The force of speech codes in discussions.
    1. 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.
    2. Proposition 6 suggests that by a thoughtful use of shared speech codes, participants can guide metacommunication.
  8. Performative ethnography.
    1. Some researchers favor the concept of performing ethnography over doing ethnography.
    2. Performative ethnography is grounded in several theoretical principles
      1. Performance is both the subject and method of performance ethnography.
        1. All social interactions are performance because speech not only reflects but also alters the world.
        2. Metaperformance—actions participants recognize as symbolic—serve as reminders that performance defines and permeates life.
      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.
        1. They wish to create actable ethnographies.
        2. Through performances, ethnographers can recognize the limitations of, and   
          uncover the cultural bias in his or her written work.
    3. Performance ethnography almost always takes place among marginalized groups.
  9. Critique: Different speech codes in communication theory.
    1. Most interpretive scholars applaud Philipsen’s commitment to long-term participant observation.
    2. However, they criticize his efforts to generalize across cultures and his scientific goals of explanation, prediction, and control.
    3. Theorists from feminist, critical, or cultural studies perspectives charge that he is silent—even naïve—about power relationships.
    4. Empiricists wish that Philipsen backed his generalizations with more scientific rigor.
    5. As for the theory’s scope or coverage, researchers trained in speech code theory and methodologies haves published ethnographies conducted in  Columbia, Finland, Germany, Israel, Mexico, Spain, as well as in the U.S. and other countries.
    6. Philipsen does offer a reminder, however, that the scope of his theory is limited to communication behavior.

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TEXT COMPARE

Archived chapters (PDF)
from previous editions
are available in
Resources by Type.
See list

New to Theory
Resources?
Find out more in this short
video overview (3:01).


Speech Codes Theory
Gerry Philipsen

CULTURAL CONTEXT: INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Chapter 33
 Face Negotiation Theory
Gender and Communication 
Chapter 33
 Face Negotiation Theory
Gender and Communication 

Chapter Outline 9th Edition

  1. Introduction.
    1. Gerry Philipsen was influenced by linguist and anthropologist Dell Hymes.
    2. He spent three years analyzing the speech code of “Teamsterville.”
    3. A speech code is a system of socially constructed symbols and meanings, premises, and rules, pertaining to communicative conduct.
    4. He conducted a second multi-year study while teaching at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the University of Washington. 
      1. This study focused on the “Nacirema,” whose speech code is intelligible to, and practiced by, a majority of Americans.
      2. Its characteristic feature is a preoccupation with metacommunication.
    5. Philipsen’s ultimate goal was to develop a general theory that would capture the relationship between communication and culture.
      1. To indicate that his theory has moved from description to explanation and prediction, he labels his work speech codes theory.
      2. He has developed six general propositions.
  2.  The distinctiveness of speech codes.
    1. Proposition 1: Wherever there is a distinctive culture, there is to be found a distinctive speech code.
    2. For those within the culture, speech codes have a taken-for-granted quality.
  3. The multiplicity of speech codes.
    1. Proposition 2: In any given speech community, multiple speech codes are deployed.
    2. People may be affected by other codes or employ more than one code.
    3. Ethnographer Erving Goffman referred to this code switching as backstage behavior and documented the discrepancies in restaurants, schools, and mental institutions
  4. The substance of speech codes.
    1. Proposition 3:  A speech code involves a culturally distinct psychology, sociology, and rhetoric.
    2. Whatever the culture, the speech code reveals structures of self, society, and strategic action.
      1. Psychology: Every speech code thematizes the nature of individuals in a particular way.
      2. 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.
      3. Rhetoric: Every speech code involves ways to discover truth and create persuasive appeals.
  5. The interpretation of speech codes.
    1. Proposition 4: The significance of speaking depends on the speech codes used by speakers and listeners to create and interpret their communication.
    2. People in a culture decide what their prominent speech practices mean.
  6. The site of speech codes.
    1. Proposition 5: The terms, rules, and premises of a speech code are inextricably woven into speaking itself.
    2. The process of discovery takes time and a person with patience that is willing to listen and watch without preconceived notions.
    3. Philipsen is not a fan of assuming a culture is either individualistic or collectivistic.
    4. Highly structured cultural forms often display the cultural significance of symbols and meanings, premises, and rules that might not be accessible through normal conversation.
      1. Social dramas are public confrontations in which one party invokes a moral rule to challenge the conduct of another.
      2. Totemizing rituals involve careful performances of structured sequences of actions that pay homage to sacred objects.
  7. The force of speech codes in discussions.
    1. 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.
    2. Proposition 6 suggests that by a thoughtful use of shared speech codes, participants can guide metacommunication.
  8. Performative ethnography.
    1. Some researchers favor the concept of performing ethnography over doing ethnography.
    2. Performative ethnography is grounded in several theoretical principles
      1. Performance is both the subject and method of performance ethnography.
        1. All social interactions are performance because speech not only reflects but also alters the world.
        2. Metaperformance—actions participants recognize as symbolic—serve as reminders that performance defines and permeates life.
      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.
        1. They wish to create actable ethnographies.
        2. Through performances, ethnographers can recognize the limitations of, and   
          uncover the cultural bias in his or her written work.
    3. Performance ethnography almost always takes place among marginalized groups.
  9. Critique: Different speech codes in communication theory.
    1. Most interpretive scholars applaud Philipsen’s commitment to long-term participant observation.
    2. However, they criticize his efforts to generalize across cultures and his scientific goals of explanation, prediction, and control.
    3. Theorists from feminist, critical, or cultural studies perspectives charge that he is silent—even naïve—about power relationships.
    4. Empiricists wish that Philipsen backed his generalizations with more scientific rigor.
    5. As for the theory’s scope or coverage, researchers trained in speech code theory and methodologies haves published ethnographies conducted in  Columbia, Finland, Germany, Israel, Mexico, Spain, as well as in the U.S. and other countries.
    6. Philipsen does offer a reminder, however, that the scope of his theory is limited to communication behavior.

 
 
 
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