Speech Community: Reflections Upon Communication

Abstract

From Hymes (1962) onward, communication scholars, anthropologists, linguists, sociolinguists, and scholars in ethnic studies have not only used the term speech communities, but have extended its significance. The purpose of this review is to examine the ways various authors have defined and used the term, in order to understand its evolution. Speech community boundaries have been defined by demographic features, such as place or space, shared language use, and shared meanings. Each condition is explored and analyzed in turn. The review raises four issues: Labels used to describe speech community refer usually to specific demographic features of the community itself, rather than features of communication; the composition of a speech community is usually defined a priori; the idea of a speech community as a homogeneous entity does not exist; and researchers often focus on member codes as the key component of a speech community. Given these issues, consideration should be given to refining speech community as a unit of analysis so that it remains a meaningful construct to study.