human ability to pay attentionselectively to some stimuli while ignoring
others.
see also dichotic listeningcodan
see syllable
codabilityn
the degree to which an aspect of experience can be described by the vocabulary
of a language.
Languages differ in the degree to which they provide words for the descrip-
tion or naming of particular things, events, experiences, and states. For
example, English makes a distinction between blue and green whereas some
languages have a single word for this colour range.
code^1 n
a term which is used instead of language, speech variety, or dialect. It
is sometimes considered to be a more neutral term than the others. People
also use “code” when they want to stress the uses of a language or language
variety in a particular community. For example, a Puerto Rican in New
York City may have two codes: English and Spanish. He or she may use one
code (English) at work and the other code (Spanish) at home or when talking
to neighbours.
see also code selection, code switching
code^2 n
a term used by the British educational sociologist Bernstein for different
ways of conveying meaning in a social context. Bernstein distinguished
between elaborated code and restricted code. The restricted code is said to
have a more reduced vocabulary range, to use more question tags, to use
pronounslike he and she instead of nouns and to use gestures such as hand
movements to help give meaning to what is said. It is claimed that speakers
using a restricted code assume that their addressees share a great many of
their attitudes and expectations.
On the other hand, persons using an elaborated code are said to make
greater use of adjectives, more complicated sentence structures and the pro-
noun I. The elaborated code is claimed to be more explicit and speakers
using it do not assume the same degree of shared attitudes and expectations
on the part of the addressee. It has been claimed that while middle-class
children have access to both codes, working-class children have access only
to the restricted code.
code