Some Problems Connected with Examining Silence and Being Quiet while Interaction Rituals and Everyday Conversations

Abstract

Both conversational analysis and examination of interactive rituals concentrate on distinguishing the structure of everyday conversations and language definition of social situations of the social interaction participants. It seems though that the researchers devote too little attention to the development of methods and techniques of research, detailed analysis of the transcription of keeping quiet by the participants of the social interaction. The aim of the article is to focus attention on the problems of treating meaningful silence by researchers as a speech, the tool and means of social actor expression, as important as other parts of speech. Some social contexts and conditions of silence were shown within different situations and worlds. The causes, results and myths of employees silence were presented. Silence was analysed in the context of existing in social worlds orders as a sign of crystallization and formation of statuses and micro social processes with special attention on the role of silence of social actors. The text uses some experience of language researchers, sociologists of language and emotion.