Megan Hodge

Anthro
9/25/10

Code-Shifting
You would be delusional if you were to say that in life you never altered the tone of your

voice to better accommodate the situation, whether it changes according to the person you are

speaking to or the topic at hand. Everyone is guilty of “code-shifting” at least once in their life.

In most cases we are more concerned with the way people actually phrase something than the

words they are saying. I believe this occurs because in some situations in life you are not capable

of saying what you really mean, so to improvise you have to use inflections to get your point

across. This can be seen in the well known saying “to read between the lines” which is a fancy

way to say to understand the implication of the words rather than their literal meaning. I, myself,

am guilty of doing this. The scenarios in which I often find myself “code-shifting” is when I am

talking to someone I am unfamiliar with, an authoritative figure, and lastly someone who is

upset.

Often when I am being introduced to a stranger, or calling to order pizza I have noticed

that my voice gets higher and more lilt. What I mean by this is that my pitch becomes lighter,

and could actually say that I sound “sweeter” similar to that of a little girl. I would imagine I do

this, so that I come across polite and more approachable.

Another situation that I find myself “code-shifting” is when I speak to an authoritative

figure; it also affects my body language. For example when speaking to Paul Hansen or a teacher

I speak in lower tones and somewhat slower, also I have a straighter back. I believe I do this

because it is necessary to me to convey my respect to the person through my tone of voice and

body language.
 Megan Hodge
Anthro
9/25/10

I also have been guilty of altering when I’m in a situation in which the other person is

upset. When this occurs my voice is also lower and I speak in more soothing tones. I do this,

because I hope it will calm the person down that way they are able to talk about what is actually

wrong, rather than making unintelligible noises. That way I can attempt to help settle the

situation.

I think that in life we adjust the tone of our voice according to the situation or the people

you are talking to because we hope it will have a certain affect. Whether that affect is to make

you seem more approachable, to demonstrate your respect, or to make a person seem more

comfortable. We do this because we analyze the way people speak rather than their actual words,

so if we’re doing it we assume they are also evaluating the tone we use and “read between the

lines.” The problem with doing this is that we are assuming that the person that we are speaking

to is just as analytical as you are and is evaluating your tone rather than your actual words. Since

you are assuming you are leaving room for fault, this could result in someone only grasping your

words and not the implications confusing the person. So you would have been better off to just

directly inform the person rather than assuming they would understand the hidden implications

in your speech.