Speech Codes Theory claims that there is a historically and sociologically constructed system of terms, meanings, premises, and rules that pertain to communicative conduct. The theory then goes on to specify with the following propositions: 1. Wherever there is a distinctive culture, there is to be found a distinctive speech code, 2. In any given speech community, multiple speech codes are deployed, 3. A speech code involves a culturally distinctive psychology, sociology, and rhetoric, 4. The significance of speaking depends on the speech codes used by speakers and listeners to create and interpret their communication, 5. The terms, rules, and premises of a speech code are inextricably woven into speaking itself, and 6. The artful use of a shared speech code is a sufficient condition for predicting, explaining, and controlling the form of discourse about the intelligibility, prudence, and morality of communication conduct.

An example of this theory is evident in an episode of South Park I recently watched. In the episode, two handicapped kids named Jimmy and Timmy joined the gang, the Crips, because the kids thought that the name Crips was referring to cripples. In this scenario, the speech codes of Timmy and Jimmy were significantly different than those of the Crips, even though they lived close to one another.