The dimensions of silence

Abstract

The paper approaches silence as a subdomain of the field of linguistic communication. A selection of verbs and idiomatic phrases of English and Romanian origin, which function as verba reticendi and verba cessandi, outline intensity and duration, which are gradual ‘dimensions’ of the act of silence acting like the ‘unspoken word’. Cross-linguistic differences are obvious at the structural level of prototypical lexical units (to be silent – a tăcea), at the level of ‘symbols of silence’ and of phrases referring to ‘inactivating of the articulatory organs’(mouth - gură, tongue – limbă, lips - buze),which concern metaphors built around ‘conduit’ and ‘container’.