To speak or not to speak: notes on silence as a dialog speech act (original) (raw)

The most Powerful Thing You’d Say Is Nothing at all: The Power of Silence in Conversation

Types of Nonverbal Communication [Working Title], 2021

After a long period of neglect, silence is currently receiving an increased amount of attention in the literature of sociolinguistics and pragmatics. Since the publication of Tannen and Saville-Troike and Jaworski, many international conferences, books, monographs, articles, PhD theses and book chapters continue to emerge. Many of those publications recognized silence as a powerful tool of communication; and that it is not peripheral to speech because any form of analysis that is applied to speech could also be applied to the analysis of silence. Silence has been broadly classified as communicative and non-communicative, and it serves both positive and negative functions. As silence performs two opposite functions, its interpretation depends on some factors such as the socio-cultural background of the actors involved in the use and the interpretation of the silence act, and the context of its use. This chapter starts with an introduction which covers review of related literature, an...

Speaking from Silence: On the Intimate Relation Between Silence and Speaking

2019

In understanding the world through language, silence, regarded simply as the absence of speech, appears to be the enemy of understanding. But in fact, it can be shown that silence is always a function of language. As we learn from Merleau-Ponty, Heidegger, and others, the relation between silence and the word of language is a positive one. There are acts of silence that can generate the movement towards meaning in language. The focus of my remarks in this paper will explore three modalities of silence that characterize the positive relation between silence and the word of language. First, there is silence as the withdrawal of the word. This is the silence of the voice that wants to hold back from speaking and to hold back the word from falling into chatter. Second, there is silence as giving voice to words. This is the silence that enacts the spacing within language that possibilizes the intentions of meaning within speech and the efforts of communicative understanding. Third, there...

Silence as Gesture: Rethinking the Nature of Communicative Silences

Communication Theory, 2008

Silence and speech are often defined in relation to each other. In much scholarship, the two are perceived as polar opposites; speech enjoys primacy in this dichotomy, with silence negatively perceived as a lack of speech. As a consequence of this binary thinking, scholars remain unable to study the full range of the meanings and uses of silence in human interactions or even to fully recognize its communicative power. Merleau-Ponty described language as a gesture, made possible by the fact that we are bodies in a physical world. Language does not envelop or clothe thought; ideas materialize as embodied language, whether spoken or written. If silence is, as I argue here, as like speech as it is different, perhaps silence, too, can be a gesture. Rather than simply a background for expressed thought, if we considered silence to be embodied, to be a mating of the phenomenal and existential bodies, how might that affect current misconceptions of silence and subsequent limitations on the study of communicative silences?

Towards a typology of silence

Journal of Pragmatics, 2007

The article presents a typology of silence in social interaction, based on a number of features, including the number of participants in the interaction, the identity of the text that is left unsaid, and the intention of the silent person. Four types are proposed-conversation, thematic, textual and situational. Since conversational silence has been extensively discussed elsewhere, the focus of the article is on the other three types, and several problematic cases are discussed concerning not only the classification of instances of silence but also whether what has been called silence is in effect silence. The types of silence are illustrated by examples such as silence in the library, during classroom lessons, in political speeches, remembrance ceremonies, and theatrical and musical performances.

The Emergence of the Communicative Value of Silence

Emergence

The Emergence of the Communicative Value of Silence Within traditional theories of communication the silence is often devoid of any communicative value. When the latter is taken into consideration, it is viewed as depending on the intentionality of the agent producing the communicative act. Unfortunately there are diverging opinions about the role to be attributed to intentionality. Moreover, its detection by the receiver is often difficult or impossible, a circumstance which prevents from building a theory of a number of interesting communication phenomena. We hold that the previous problems can be dealt with by resorting to a systemic view in which communication is nothing but a macroscopic phenomenon, emergent from the interactions between elements of a communicative system. This perspective allows to introduce the methodological tools of Systemics to better describe all kinds of communication, grasping their emergent meanings. Only in this way the emergent communicative value of silence can be detected. Such an approach is endowed with a strong potential usefulness when dealing with the communicative interactions within both small and large organizations.

Explicit and implicit strategies of silence

Journal of Advertising and Public Relations, 2019

This critical essay focuses on strategic silence as communicative silence – not when we talk about silence, but when we talk through silence. It proceeds in two steps. First, a definition of strategic silence, based on the discussion of explicit and implicit silence is suggested. Strategic silences are (1) intentional, directed at audiences, (2) mostly communicative and (3) discursive practices that take place in (4) situations of communication (5) at higher degrees of indirectness, which usually entail (6) a shift from speaking to actionable listening. Second, two major types of silence are discussed. Explicit and implicit strategies of silence are two different forms – and degrees – of indirectness. Explicit silence speaks for itself. What the speaker is silent about is what the listener is expected to understand. Implicit silence is more ambiguous. What is meant is different from what is said. Explicit silence appeals to the consciousness of the public. Implicit silence tries to slip under its radar. Implicit strategies of silence are more indirect than the implicit ones. Strategic communication is always indirect. Indirect communication always involves silence. The more indirect communication is, the more silent it becomes. Silence is most strategic when it is not seen as such.

Revisiting the Perception of Silence in Linguistics

JOURNAL OF ADVANCES IN LINGUISTICS, 2018

Silence in human communication has not only been marginalized as a means of communication, but has often been considered as void of serving any communicative role. It is presumptuously viewed as the mere opposite of communication occurring at the far end of the communicative continuum. Investigating the role of silence in human communication from a linguistic point of view, this paper, hence, attempts to show that such conventional view of silence as a non-communicative tool should be reconsidered. It argues that both silence and speech make an integral part of human communication as they coincide in any delivered message. The context in which they serve a communicative function plays a major role in their use, the choice of one over the other, as well as the interpretation of any delivered message. The study also argues that speech and silence do not always fall into the traditional schematic classification of vocal versus non-vocal. While silence can be vocal in some occasions in...

Talk and silence: Instantiations and articulations

2003

This paper considers the desire for unity, reconciliation and consensus underpinning three models of talking–namely,'the meeting','the dyadic love relationship', and 'the psychoanalytic session'. We highlight the three domains' shared intellectual and historical heritage wherein talk is seen as a mode of achieving unity (of the group, of the dyad, or of the self) and conversely 'silence'is seen as pathology.

Semantic Analysis of Silence in Conversational Discourse

2020

Silence in conversations semantically carries varied interpretations. Since silence is a component of discontinuity in speech, it arises relatively rarely in confrontational discourse that is distinguished by continuous speaking flow and rapid turn-taking. A good conversation should involve back-channel support from the receiver. In some instances, especially during conversations, be it interrogation, peer discussion or formal interaction, one party may relent in responding to an ongoing discussion. Once this happens, the speaker is demotivated to continue and many thoughts begin to run through the mind of the speaker. However, it is especially evident when it happens, and may signify either an expression of control or an absence of control. The work focuses on pauses and differences, analyzes their power roles encrypted in silence. The study adopted a desktop literature review method (desk study). This study further used a behavioral approach while researching and writing this essa...