THE PRAGMATIC FUNCTION OF SILENCE IN THE PROCESS OF COMMUNICATION

Abstract

The present paper studies the role of silence in communication. Its specific features are revealed in communication, both verbally and non-verbally. People use various non-verbal means as symbolic elements. These non-verbal means have different significations: they can be expressed in mimic behaviour and gestures. The role of silence as a non-verbal means of communication is of great importance, as it conveys information that is not expressed verbally and varies according to the context: it may express different emotions like happiness, anger, expectation, astonishment, agreement, etc. The study comes to prove that in some cases silence may be used intentionally for emphasizing the implicit meaning of the message, which is revealed in macro-context.