An Analysis Of Turn Silence From The Perspective Of Cognitive Pragmatics

Verbal language is an important tool in human communication, and non-verbal language is a tool of no less significance, which sometimes conveys meanings which are not transmitted through verbal language. Silence is often observed as a common phenomenon of non-verbal communication. American famous author and philosopher Henry David Thoreau once pointed out that"In human intercourse the tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when silence is not understood."This famous quote manifests the importance of understanding silence in human intercourses. After the literary review is done, we find that the study of silence has not been adequately done in both domestic and broad academic world, and this is especially the case in our country. Focusing on the phenomenon of turn silence in English and Chinese conversational discourses, the paper illustrates both the advantages and disadvantages of turn silence of conversational theory and cooperative principle. Relevance theory provides a new perspective to a cognitive pragmatic analysis of turn silence. The paper points out the relevant accounts are based on the lexical meaning understanding from the lexical pragmatic perspective, and pragmatic enrichment lays the foundation to the relevant account of turn silence. Different cultural environments equip people with the same or different interpretations of turn silence. In cross-cultural communications, the pragmatic failure of turn silence is inevitable. The theory of schema proves an effective tool in understanding and avoiding this pragmatic failure. The paper concludes that the analysis of turn silence is not only an issue of lexical pragmatics but also an issue of cognitive pragmatics.