The code model of communication: a powerful - SIL International

3. The Code Model Decoded
3.1. The code model as a concept
The discipline of linguistics has not always ascribed to the code model. The model
did not appear on the linguistic scene until the mid-1950s, following the appropriation of
Shannon’s information theory (Shannon 1948; Shannon and Weaver 1949; Weaver
1949a). An adjusted version of information theory was then integrated with an already
existent model, an integration of the ancient conduit metaphor (Reddy 1979) and
Saussure’s speech circuit (Saussure 1983, 1985). This chapter addresses each of these
three constituent models in turn, as well as addressing their contemporary integration in
the code model.
While this study addresses the impact of a single model of communication, it would
be at best naïve to regard that model as the only model available. Indeed, as K. L. Berge
(1994) points out, communication-relevant literature demonstrates the existence of
several models. This is evident even though the adherents to various models do not
always directly or explicitly refer to those models. As stated previously, theoretical
dependence upon a particular model may, in many cases, be most evident in the choice of
metaphors employed by the respective theoreticians, rather than in explicit statements
offered by those theoreticians. As Berge states it: “The trends [in communicationrelevant
research] can be classified according to the basic models of communication they
have adopted. Or rather, according to the different metaphors that linguists use in order to
try to illustrate or make explicit the phenomenon of communication” (Berge 1994:614).
The present study differs from that offered by Berge, but it does follow a similar
pattern in emphasizing the role of metaphors for communication. It is useful to note
Berge’s use of the term “adopted.” The term suggests two premises, both of which are
instrumental in an historical review of the code model, its development, and influence:
1. There is more than one way to view communication.
2. The use of a model correlates with presuppositions held by linguists using the
model.
Coupled with a truism offered by the diffusionist Torsten Hägerstrand, these two
premises support a third. Hägerstrand writes, “It is self-evident that nobody can adopt an
innovation without first having gained knowledge about its existence” (Hägerstrand
1965). 19 In other words, if linguists employ the same jargon and similar models, it is
19 Of course, this is not to suggest that parallel invention does not or cannot occur. It is simply to suggest that, in
observing instances where multiple communities employ an identical or closely similar artifact (tool, clothing style,
or, in this case, theoretical model of communication), the diffusionist view will initially hypothesize adoption, rather
than parallel invention.
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