Table Of ContentSilence as Language
Verbal silence touches on every possible aspect of daily life. This book
providesafulllinguisticanalysisoftheroleofsilenceinlanguage,exploring
perspectivesfromsemantics,semiotics,pragmatics,phonetics,syntax,gram-
mar and poetics, and taking into account a range of spoken and written
contexts.Theauthorarguesthatsilenceisjustascommunicativeinlanguage
asspeech,asitresultsfromthedeliberatechoiceofthespeaker,andserves
functions such as informing, conveying emotions, signalling turn switching
and activating the addresser. Verbal silence is used, alongside speech, to
iconically serve linguistic functions in all areas of life, as well as being
employed in a wide variety of written texts. The forms and functions of
silenceareexplained,detailedandillustratedwithexamplestakenfromboth
written texts and real-life interactions. Engaging and comprehensive, this
book is essential reading for anyone interested in this fascinating
linguisticphenomenon.
michal ephratt is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Haifa,
Israel.Herresearchinterestsincludelanguageandlife:neologisms,iconicity,
pragmatics,propernamesandlinguisticmodelsinpsychoanalytictheoryand
practice. Her major research focus is on the study of silence as a means
ofexpression.
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Silence as Language
Verbal Silence as a Means of Expression
Michal Ephratt
UniversityofHaifa
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Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781108471671
DOI:10.1017/9781108650779
©MichalEphratt2022
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Names:Ephratt,Michal,author.
Title:Silenceaslanguage:verbalsilenceasameansofexpression/MichalEphratt.
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(William Blake)
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Contents
List of Figures and Tables page x
Preface and Acknowledgements xi
1 Introduction 1
2 The DifferentSorts ofSilence 5
2.1 SilencesExternaltoInteraction:Stillness 5
2.2 SilenceswithinInteraction 7
2.2.1 MutenessasaSymptom 8
2.2.2 TheIntermediatePlane:PausesasParalinguisticSilences 9
2.2.3 TheContentPlane 15
2.2.3.1 TheUnsaid 16
2.2.3.2 EmptySpeech 19
2.2.4 TheVerbalPlane 22
2.2.4.1 Silencing 23
2.3 Scheme:SilencesinInteraction 27
3 VerbalSilence: Forms 30
3.1 VerbalSilence:AnIntuitiveGlance 30
3.2 TheFormsofVerbalSilence 36
3.2.1 PhoneticVerbalSilence 50
3.2.2 MorphologicalVerbalSilence 57
3.2.2.1 IsolatedBoundMorphemesasStumps 58
3.2.2.2 MorphologicalStumpsinLightoftheZero 60
3.2.3 MorphosyntacticVerbalSilence 69
3.2.3.1 Definiteness:TheDefiniteandIndefiniteArticles 70
3.2.3.2 ThePassiveVoiceasVerbalSilence 78
3.2.4 SyntacticVerbalSilence 96
3.2.4.1 LeavingtheSubjectandPredicate
ConstituentsUninstantiated 101
3.2.4.2 LeavingtheSubject’sConstituentUninstantiated 102
3.2.4.3 LeavingtheSentence’sEntirevporOnlyIts
HeadUninstantiated 111
3.2.4.4 LeavingtheVerbComplementsorAdjunctsUninstantiated 132
3.2.4.5 LeavingSyntacticFunctionWords–Prepositionsand
Connectives–Uninstantiated 163
vii
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viii Contents
3.2.4.6 LeavingaConjunctofaCoordinatingoraSubordination
ConstructionUninstantiated 171
3.2.5 LexicalVerbalSilence 190
3.2.5.1 SpeechandSilenceLexicalEntriesSignalling
VerbalSilences 192
3.2.5.2 IntertextualityasVerbalSilence 207
3.2.5.3 VerbalSilencePointingtoTaboo 218
3.2.5.4 ProperNamesandVerbalSilence 226
3.2.5.5 Part–WholeRelationsandVerbalSilence 240
4 VerbalSilence: Functions 248
4.1 TheReferentialFunction 249
4.2 TheEmotiveFunction 254
4.2.1 TheDiminutive 262
4.3 TheConativeFunction 264
4.3.1 ConativeRolesServedbyVerbalSilenceastheUnmarkedMeans 267
4.3.1.1 Turn-Switching:AVerbalSilenceDiscourseMarker 267
4.3.1.2 TheSilentTreatment 268
4.3.1.3 SilenceasConsent 269
4.3.2 WhenSpeechandVerbalSilenceJointlyComplementtoProduce
anIllocution 271
4.3.3 ConativeRolesServedbyVerbalSilencewhileSpeechIsthe
UnmarkedMeans 272
4.3.3.1 Propadverts:Propaganda+Adverts 272
4.3.3.2 Question–AnswerAdjacencyPair 275
4.4 ThePhaticFunction 283
4.5 ThePoeticFunction 293
4.5.1 Poe’s‘TheRaven’:VerbalSilenceProjectedtoBuildtheBallad’s
PoeticSequence 295
4.5.2 Haiku 301
4.5.3 TheMono-Dialogue 306
4.6 TheMetalinguisticFunction 308
4.6.1 PointingtoaMismatchbetweenCodeandMeaning 309
4.6.1.1 ThePassivePointingtoaMismatchbetweenSubjecthood
andAgenthood 309
4.6.1.2 UninstantiatedSyntacticFunctionWordsPointing
totheStructureoftheCode 310
4.6.1.3 PartialBinaryCodeAccentingItsCounterpart 310
4.6.1.4 Taboo:TheWordsPointingtotheProhibitedCode 310
4.6.1.5 DistortedCodeasMetalinguisticVerbalSilence 311
4.6.2 ActivatingtheAddresseeasanEncoder 311
4.6.2.1 TheUnmarkedTurn-SwitchingDiscourseMarker 312
4.6.2.2 IntertextualStumpsMetalinguisticallyActivating
theAddresseeasanEncoder 314
4.6.2.3 FormalStumpsActivatingtheAddresseeasanEncoder 315
4.6.3 TheMetalinguisticVerbalSilence:DotDotDot 316
4.6.3.1 TheParadigmaticRoleoftheThree-DotMark 316
4.6.3.2 TheSyntagmaticRoleoftheThree-DotMark 316
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Contents ix
4.6.3.3 TheThree-DotMarkSignifyingAuthentic
MetalinguisticVoid 318
4.6.4 TheShortageofWords 321
4.6.5 TheRighttoSilence 326
4.7 TheCircumstantialFunction 328
5 S S S 334
References 335
Literary Works 351
Index 354
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