Syntactic and Pragmatic Codes in Communication

The essay offers a perspective on the problem of how language users both converge on meaning, and thereby establish stability and predictability in interaction, and develop individualized semantic scripts that are activated in interaction.

Abstract

This essay argues for the existence of two codes termed pragmatic and syntactic. A code is a system of signs that are interactionally relevant to contexts, appropriateness, genres, and situations. The essay offers a perspective on the problem of how language users both converge on meaning, and thereby establish stability and predictability in interaction, and develop individualized semantic scripts that are activated in interaction. The codes are positioned along a psycholinguistic–sociolinguistic continuum. The pragmatic code is theoretically and linguistically linked to the oral style in which context and shared background are very important. The syntactic code is less context driven and more explicit and differentiated. The two codes are distinguished on the basis of issues in meaning, comprehension, reasoning, context, fragmentation-integration, involvement-detachment, and the level of planning.