El Lugar del silencio en el proceso de comunicación

Abstract

This dissertation strives to ascertain the role of silence in the communication process. The starting point is the conviction that silences contradictory relationship towards speech, that it both negates and illuminates, requires a special mode of analysis, inserted in a general theory of communication. Both world and silence exist as complementary notions that do not oppose each other. The liminarity of silence ?equidistant to both, verbal and non-verbal communication? requires the interdisciplinary approach that this study uses. Starting from the theoretical principles of both pragmatics and communication theory, it encompasses also the contributions from disciplines as diverse as literature, religion and art. It takes into account issues of terminology, and also the forces of cultural relativism to which it is subject to. The increasing number of functions and tipologies attributed to silence proves its necessity as an operative and interiorized notion among speakers. Its sistematic study, subordinated to contextual analysis, should be an important discipline in the future study of Linguistics.