Code : is a set of practices familiar to users of the medium

Transcription

1 Lecture (05) CODES

2 Code Code : is a set of practices familiar to users of the medium operating within a broad cultural framework. When studying cultural practices, semioticians treat as signs any objects or actions which have meaning to members of the cultural group, seeking to identify the rules or conventions of the codes which underlie the production of meanings within that culture.

3 Types Of Codes SOCIAL CODES verbal language (phonological, syntactical, lexical, prosodic and paralinguistic subcodes); bodily codes (bodily contact, proximity, physical orientation, appearance, facial expression, gaze, head-nods, gestures and posture); commodity codes (fashions, clothing, cars); behavioural codes (protocols, rituals, role-playing, games).

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5 Types Of Codes TEXTUAL CODES scientific codes, including mathematics; aesthetic codes within the various expressive arts (poetry, drama, painting, sculpture, music, etc.) including classicism, romanticism, realism; genre, rhetorical and stylistic codes: exposition, argument, description and narration and so on; mass media codes including photographic, televisual, filmic, radio, newspaper and magazine codes, both technical and conventional (including format).

6 Types Of Codes INTERPRETIVE CODES perceptual codes: e.g. of visual perception (Hall 1973, 132; Nichols 1981, 11ff.; Eco 1982) (note that this code does not assume intentional communication); ideological codes: more broadly, these include codes for encoding and decoding texts dominant (or hegemonic ), negotiated or oppositional (Hall 1980; Morley 1980). More specifically, we may list the -isms, such as individualism, liberalism, feminism, racism, materialism, capitalism, progressivism, conservatism, socialism, objectivism and populism; (note, however, that all codes can be seen as ideological).

7 Types Of Codes These three types of codes correspond broadly to three key kinds of knowledge required by interpreters of a text, namely knowledge of: 1. the world (social knowledge); 2. the medium and the genre (textual knowledge); 3. the relationship between (1) and (2) (modality judgements).

8 Types Of Codes Another taxonomy: 1. Perceptual Codes 2. Social Codes 3. Textual Codes

9 Perceptual Codes Fredric Jameson declares that all perceptual systems are already languages in their own right (Jameson 1972, 152). figure vs. ground

10 Perceptual Codes fundamental and universal principles ( laws ) of perceptual organization, including: proximity features which are close together are associated; similarity features which look similar are associated; good continuity contours based on smooth continuity are preferred to abrupt changes of direction; closure interpretations which produce closed rather than open figures are favoured;

11 Perceptual Codes fundamental and universal principles ( laws ) of perceptual organization, including: smallness smaller areas tend to be seen as figures against a larger background; symmetry symmetrical areas tend to be seen as figures against asymmetrical backgrounds; surroundedness areas which can be seen as surrounded by others tend to be perceived as figures.

12 Perceptual Codes We are rarely aware of our own habitual ways of seeing the world. We are routinely anaesthetized to a psychological mechanism called perceptual constancy which stabilizes the relative shifts in the apparent shapes and sizes of people and objects in the world around us as we change our visual viewpoints in relation to them.

13 Social Codes Sapir Whorf hypothesis can be described as relating two associated principles: linguistic determinism and linguistic relativism. Applying these two principles, the Whorfian thesis is that people who speak languages with very different phonological, grammatical and semantic distinctions perceive and think about the world quite differently, their worldviews being shaped or determined by their language (Sapir 1958, 69; Whorf 1956, ).

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15 Social Codes A controversial distinction regarding British linguistic usage was introduced in the 1960s by the sociologist Basil Bernstein between so-called restricted code and elaborated code (Bernstein 1971).

16 Social Codes restricted code : was used in informal situations and was characterized by: o a reliance on situational context, o a lack of stylistic variety, o an emphasis on the speaker s membership of the group, o simple syntax o and the frequent use of gestures and tag questions (such as Isn t it? ).

17 Social Codes elaborated code : was used in formal situations and was characterized by: o less dependence on context, o wide stylistic range (including the passive voice), o more adjectives, o relatively complex syntax o and the use of the pronoun I.

18 Social Codes codes of looking The duration of the gaze identity : the self

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20 Social Codes

21 Textual Codes Codes transcend single texts, linking them together in an interpretive framework which is used by their producers and interpreters. In creating texts we select and combine signs in relation to the codes with which we are familiar. We interpret signs with reference to what seem to be appropriate codes. This helps to limit their possible meanings. Usually the appropriate codes are obvious, over-determined by all sorts of contextual cues.

22 Textual Codes One of the most fundamental kinds of textual code relates to genre. Traditional definitions of genres tend to be based on the notion that they constitute particular conventions of content (such as themes or settings) and/or form (including structure and style) which are shared by the texts which are regarded as belonging to them. fiction vs. non-fiction genres

23 Textual Codes Traditional rhetoric distinguishes between four kinds of discourse: exposition, argument, description and narration (Brooks and Warren 1972, 44). These four forms, which relate to primary purposes, are often referred to as different genres (e.g. Fairclough 1995a, 88).

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