The Sound Behind Silence

Silence as a special means of communication is indispensable in people’s daily communication. The correct use of silence will add attractiveness to conversation for the large amount of information.But people usually tend to interpret silence as a pause or blank in conversation, or even a part of the paralanguage. This thesis attempts to demonstrate that conversational silence is an integral part of speech act and possesses its own illocutionary force.Grice’s most influential contribution is that he puts forward the principles of cooperation in communication.Silence as a special form of communication is generated accompanied by discourse.Should it be treated ad a kind of speaker’s intentional violation of Cooperative Principle or the consistency of it? This thesis will firstly analyze the illocutionary forces of silence by re-examining Grice’s Cooperative Principle in the framework of its four maxims. Secondly, multiple examples of silence in the American series Prison Break will be employed to illustrate its role in conversation. It is argued that conversational silences possess many illocutionary forces by both complying with CP and violating it. In this film, at least eight illocutionary forces have been identified for illustration,such as providing resistance,managing conflict,conveying informative intention, providing an evaluation,obeying,self protecting,and attracting hearer’s attention.