Code is One of the six factors involved in any communication process. The metalinguistic function corresponds to this factor.
When communication is code-oriented or the codes on which it depends, it is said that its function is metalinguistic (or due to the fact that the system of signs, in a very general sense or metaphorically expressed, may not be linguistic – metasemiotic).
Usually, we use codes when transmitting messages, sometimes the message is aimed at the code itself.
If someone tells you that the “OK” gesture used in Anglo-American countries would be misinterpreted in Brazil, then the statement itself is metalinguistic, as it draws attention to a code.
In semiotic texts, two meanings of the code are considered the most common. In one, the code is taken as a set of rules prescribing how to act or what to do, and in the other, it is presented as a key (or set of instructions) for translating a message.
Morse code is a key to comparing in certain ways taps, broken by pauses, with the letters of the alphabet. Codes as rule networks are normative. They provide the rules for judging whether we are doing the right thing.
Judgments about incorrect pronunciation are just one of the possibilities regarding the codification of sounds from the alphabet.
Of course, not all code violations signal incorrectness or incompetence, some are the result of a conscious decision – for example, when someone decides to shock people attending a formal reception by appearing in a bathing suit, he violates the fashion code.
The example given above suggests an important difference: the code does not have to be explicit. In fact, many codes can form a network of more or less implicit (undeclared) rules which are derived through imitative behavior and are somehow followed unconsciously.
Roland Barthes and Umberto Eco are the two contemporary semioticians who have devoted much of their work to code.
Their research is particularly important in showing that more than one code works in most communication contexts, and also that it is imperative to understand the violation and transgression of codes in order to understand works of art.
