Тopic 4. Basic key conceptsAny culture can be explained through different codes, models and paradigms. A codification enables communication about the world, and it entails two translations: between the world and a code, and between one user of the code and others. A ‘codification system’ can be understood as the way in which a universe of objects, relations and events is transformed into communicable signs. Hence, codification usually represents an analogic mirroring of relations among one set of phenomena (‘events’) in another set (‘symbols’). The latter can then consistently be read as signs, as symbolizing certain events and the actions that might follow. This is necessary both for the initial perceiver of events to know what he is seeing – his code orders and generalizes his perceptions – and necessary for his possible communication of information about his perceptions to others; decodification of messages is not possible if the code contains too many random elements. Code, Model and Paradigm Code A code is a system of signs governed by rules agreed (explicitly or implicitly) between the members of the using culture. This is a definition of a signifying code, but there are also behavioural codes, such as the legal code. For instance, the highway code is both a signifying and a behavioural code. Signifying codes, then, have the following features: 1) They have a number of units arranged in paradigms from which one is chosen. 2) These chosen units are combined syntagmatically into a message or text. 3) They convey meaning which derives from the agreement among, and shared cultural experience of, their users. 4) They are transmittable by their appropriate media of communication. 5) They can be a way of classifying, organizing and understanding material, as well as of transmitting or communicating it. All our social and cultural activities or products are encoded. The code with the simplest form is the binary code, in which the paradigm of units is confined to two – Yes/No, On/ Off, + /- or 1/0. This still allows complex syntagms; indeed the most sophisticated computers work through a binary code. Analogue codes are composed of units which are not distinguishable in themselves, but only in their interpretation (for example, the continuous scale of mouth shape from a slight smile through a grin to a laugh). Digital codes have units that are clearly distinguished from each other (for example, verbal language, mathematics or musical notation which has imposed digital differences upon continuous scales of sound). Digital codes are easier to understand and talk about, which is why science uses them, while aesthetic or emotive codes are frequently more analogic. Logical codes have an agreed and precisely defined paradigm of meanings for their paradigm of units. They work on the first order of signification(the denotative) only, and try as far as possible to exclude second order meanings of connotation and myth. The language of mathematics (5 - 3 = 2), or of chemical formulae (H2O), are purely logical codes. Scientific writing and objective reporting aspire to a logical code of language. Aesthetic codes, on the other hand, work more on the second order of signification (indeed many have no denotative meaning at all); they do not have precisely defined meanings, but tend more to the subjective or intersubjective. They rely partly on established convention, but also on their ability to embody clues for their own decoding, so that an aesthetic text uses codes that are, to a certain extent, unique to it alone, and which can therefore be decoded only by paying close attention to the text itself. Presentational codes use the body as transmitter, and are tied to the here and now; they tend to be indexical in that they indicate aspects of the sender’s internal or social state. The main ones are body contact, proximity to another, physical orientation, appearance, head nods, facial expression, gesture, posture, eye movement and contact, and non-verbal aspects of speech (intonation, volume). They are often called the codes of non-verbal communication (or NVC). Representational codes produce freestanding texts that can be isolated from their sender; they can deal with abstractions, absences and generalizations; and they tend to be iconic or symbolic (Peirce’s terms). They produce books, paintings, films and so on. There is a range of technical codes in each medium, which are frequently used to convey second order signification, particularly connotation. In photography we can use the codes of focus, lighting, framingand camera angle to produce connotative meanings; in film and television the codes of editing, fading and dissolving can perform the same function (or they can signify relationships within the narrative); in music, the Italian directions like allegro, lente and staccato are a technical code signifying the connotations that depend upon how the piece is played. Also in the second order of signification are the cultural codes through which myths operate. These are manifest within the texts of a culture, but can also be seen at work in the way that we conceptualize or understand our social world.
Model Model is the structural representation of a different set of elements that aims to guide analysis of complex and perhaps novel issues. The concept of model has been described by Harré as constituting a central but unstable position within scientific and social scientific enquiry. Models are considered essential for the construction of hypotheses and in suggesting new investigation of old areas because of a reference to situations or processes that may be more easily comprehended. In this sense a model can be an iconic representation that reminds one of the real thing – as would a photograph or a doll. Or the model may refer to some ideal type that real versions satisfy only partially, as with some super powerful hero/heroine. Other applications, of which there are many, include explanatory modelling, where there is often no exact one-to-one similarity between two corresponding elements within the comparison process. For example, information processing models as reviewed by Lindsay and Norman may refer to computer systems, programs and operations when explaining the cognitive bases of communication although no full analogy is intended with all aspects of a computer. Commonly used models in communication include linear, circular, helical, transactional, interpersonal and intrapersonal. The danger with the use of models, especially when devised for explanatory rather than descriptive reasons, is that they may be taken too literally. They may then become restrictive to future theorizing because of the acceptance of arbitrarily imposed (but at one time convenient) boundaries.
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