REPRESENTANTS OF THE SITUATION OF SILENCE AND WITHDRAWAL FROM IT

Abstract

The research focuses on silence as a major component of verbal communication. The object of the research is contexts containing markers of silence. The research is aimed to distinguish the language means used by writers to describe the situation of silence and ways to withdraw from silence, as well as factors causing silence. In the course of the research the author analysed the texts of the Siberian writers: V. Shukshin, V. Rasputin and A. Vampilov. As a result of the research two groups of factors causing silence were distinguished: silence caused by emotions and silence caused by a particular state of the speakers. Besides, statistical analysis helped define the major causes of silence. The authors describe the situation of silence through verbs. The analysis of the situation of silence helped define this situation as nonstandard, as the subject of silence withdraws from silence with effort. Withdrawal from silence can be spontaneous, accompanied by tears; the subject of silence changes their speech tempo and tone, changes their posture or location, uses their hands. Thus, despite being conscious, the situation of withdrawal from silence is border-line: the speaker changes both inwardly and outwardly.

Keywords

• communication, zero speech act, causation, situation of withdrawal from silence, non-verbal discourse