As an academic discipline, it explores the manner in which groups communicate based on societal, cultural, gender, occupational or other factors.
A speech code can also be defined as "a historically enacted socially constructed system of terms, meanings, premises, and rules, pertaining to communicative conduct.
"[1] "This theory seeks to answer questions about the existence of speech codes, their substance, the way they can be discovered, and their force upon people within a culture" (Griffin, 2005).
He decided to change it because he recognized that many people could not get past the idea of Ethnography as simply a research method.
[1] He was considered a naturalist who watched, listened and recorded communicative conduct in a cultures natural setting.
Em Griffin[1] stated that, "Many people can't get past the idea of ethnography as simply a research method."
With that being said, Philipsen moved from description to explanation, resulting in him labeling his work "speech codes theory".
The first was to distill some of what might be learned from a large body of fieldwork research on culturally distinctive ways of speaking.
It was presented as a formal theoretical statements with five empirical grounded propositions, four of which were carried over intact from the earlier version."
For three years, Philipsen spoke with everyone he could; from a kid on the corner to the women on their front porches, and men in bars.
)[1] According to Philipsen there are three defining characteristics of the speech codes theory and he illustrated these by referencing Carbaugh's previous study.
The first characteristic being that speech codes are, "grounded in the observation of communication conduct in particular times and places" (Gudykunst, 2005).
Speech codes theory is concerned about observing communication conduct through noticing, describing, interpreting and explaining the findings.
"[3] According to Gerry Philipsen, the Speech Codes Theory is a historically enacted, socially constructed system of terms, meanings, premises, and rules, pertaining to communicative conduct.
Yet over time, we grow accustomed to these patterns and no longer notice a difference in pronunciation and/or grammar.