The Code Model of Communication: Its Current Status and Relevance in Mainstream Linguistics

Abstract

The view of communication, which sees communication as a process in which encoders convey messages to decoders
through the code which matches the messages with signals, is usually referred to as the code model of communication. Modern
pragmatics has shed a lot of light on the ways in which the model fails to account for many problems related with communication
by suggesting its alternative, inferential model of communication. However, the code-model-based idea of communication still
makes itself strongly felt. Theorists have not spared efforts to answer the question whether the model has been abandoned or
only expanded upon and supplemented by other models of communication. This paper is an attempt to bring together the views
concerning this thorny issue. Its chief aim consists in answering the question whether the code model is still recognized as a
leading model of communication in mainstream linguistics or it has lost such status because it has been eventually replaced by
alternative models of communication. The answer to this question involves the discussion of the origin of the model, its farreaching consequences, and also the major reason of its persistent influence.