On Silence - An Attemptive Analysis Of Silence From Saussure 's Linguistic Theory

How to talk about silence since language has become one of the symbol of human beings? While many studies has been made in language in the fields of philosophy, history, literature, religion and so on, we do not think about silence a lot. There are many common connections between silence and language. When taken rid of its psychological analysis and intenton, silence almost equals to the negative proposition of laguage (which means not to speak). Therefore, can we choose one of the linguistic theories to try to analyze silence? My thesis is based on this intention. Moreover, the thesis in not only about the academic study but also about the thought of our life, so the thesis also includes the consideration of the positive factors and positive energy of the behavior of silence.The thesis is based on the lingusitic theory of the Swiss linguist Saussure, as well as the theories of the structuralist linguist Jakobson, French philosopher Derrida and Lacan, French symbologist Roland Barthes, whose theories are based on Saussure, so as to analyze the major factors of silence in the very linguistic system, the forms of present of silence, ane its relationship with talking, aiming to open a new area to the linguistic as well as to find a new stand to poner the silence. I am looking forward to occuring new thoughts from these researches.The thesis consists of five parts:The first part describes the phenomenon of silence out of its psychological analysis and intention. Meanwhie, it tells the story of Abraham in Fear and Trembling to start the discussion, stressing the questions and paradox in the behavior of being silent. Based on the lingusitic theory of Saussure, the second part tries to analyze the silence behavior as symbol and show the feasibility to do so. The analysis is mainly around some basic concepts created by Saussure in his Course in General Linguistics. Here is the conclusion made from the analysis:As symbols, silence can be concluded to the linguistic system. However, it breaks the system itself. As Corse in General Lingusitic says, parole is hardly to analyze at all. Therefore, silence can be the exception of the language. The third part mainly discuesses the replacement of silence. The forth part mainly analyzes the different forms of silence behavior. The fiveth part mainly refutes the disscuession in the second part., since analyzing silencce by using the lingustic system of Saussure is the result in concluding it to the very system previously. Therefore, silence is limited in the very system. Actually, the true silence tries to dissolve the different of signifier and siginified. As long as no other form can take place of silence, the siginifier chains made by Lacan is destructed. In other word, that can be one way to restrain the increasing meaning of the language. Thanks to that, silence is more tend to action, but not to languag.