Code (semiotics)

In semiotics, the term code is used for communication conventions. There are rules and restrictions - stated or unstated - that affect the meaning and interpretation of the characters used in the text. Task of semiotics is to identify, among other things, this and track its development.

We can separate codes on the kind of knowledge that requires the interpreter to decipher the text. To be distinguished:

• Social codes,
• Text codes (also: codes of representation; codes with respect to the medium and the genre) and
• Interpretation codes ( codes with respect to the relations between social and text codes ).

This classification is, however, problematic, since ultimately all codes are social codes.

Social codes

• Language codes (pronunciation, sentence structure, vocabulary, dialect / slang )
• Body codes ( body contact, proximity, appearance, facial expression, eye, gestures, posture ); Example: gaze behavior: To exist here and Others gender differences ( women men women "may" Men view only briefly, on the other hand longer) and
• Differences between contact cultures ( Arab countries, Southern Europe, Latin American ), in which a view Dodge as nervousness, tenseness, without self- consciousness, even as dishonesty and rudeness can be interpreted, and non-contact cultures in which a too long visions ( " Staring " ) can be seen as a threat or insult. For example, one may not see his mother in Kenya, and in Japan, you should look at the neck instead of the face.

Text codes

• Code through the jargon (eg mathematics ): verifiability
• Aesthetic codes
• Code with respect to genre, style and rhetoric: narrative structure ( plot, character, dialogue, environment, etc. ), structure, argumentation
• Technical and formal codes of mass media (eg, formats)

Interpretation codes

• Codes of perception: reading behavior and even film viewing is learned behavior and is therefore specifically studied.
• Ideology - codes: Some texts have been written under certain social influences or are interpreted in certain respects. These influences are often described with words that the suffix "- ism" performed (eg, individualism, liberalism, feminism, racism, materialism, capitalism, socialism, objectivism, populism, consumerism, conservatism ), but basically, any knowledge be regarded as ideological.