Functions of Communicative Silence in Reading Literary Texts

The purpose of the present article is to examine the different functions of silence as a part of linguistic communication as well as the absence of any kind of linguistic element. Based on the Organon-Model by Karl Buhler, Roman Jacobson (1956) distinguishes six communication functions, each associated with a dimension of the communication process. Michael Ephratt (2008) has revised the same model, considering (Eloquent) silence as a linguistic sign which conveys information in the referential, emotive, conative, phatic, metalinguistic functions. To shed light on the issue, we study several literary texts to show how communicational silence, which is a new issue in literary linguistics, and its functions are applied to transferring a message or narrating a story. It can be considered as a narrative technique in order to say something through blank, absent or deferred elements. The question of the article is how six communication functions of silence could apply to expressing something. The result of the study showed that silence has a significant role in activating reader's role in reading a text.