ACCEPTAREA ŞI REFUZUL PRIN TĂCERE

Abstract

The topic of this linguistic research is silence. At first sight this subject is contradictory. This results in the way in which a linguist cannot study silence because it literally means lack of discourse. In fact, while analyzing silence, we can identify situations it is used in and, which is more important, we are interested in silence as a refusal or acceptance in the Romanian language. When we speak about silence we mean “quietness, pause, a longer interruption in a discussion”. Silence does not imply absence of communication. Everything we do is a form of communication, even when we do not utter a word. Silence suggests a tacit acceptance, lack of desire to contradict a person with a higher authority. Within interpersonal communication we need some moments of recollection. Recollection is a failed verbal answer that permits an infinite number of interpretations depending on the discourse situation. Silence is a sign of obedience, non-protest. We apply to silence when the situations dictate this: either when we are not interested in what is going on around us, we remain indifferent to any form of request from our partners, the partner’s proposal makes us meditate, or we merely cannot find words to express our emotions (satisfaction, joy, surprise, etc.) produced during communication.