Silence is considered a speech act with illocutionary force, capable of transmitting different meanings across communicative contexts.

Evidence

Silence as a Tactic of Communication in Pragmatics, Novel, and Poetry (ResearchGate)

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim
• XREF: connects to: Silence is a positive, self-contained reality rather than mere absence. — George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels: The Quest for Absolute…, 19; Silence is not simple; reevaluating its constitutional status requires distinguishing it from blankness and recognizing its communicative function. — No Right to Remain Silent: Negative Rights in a Positive-Rights World; Turn silence acts independently as a conversational turn, replacing the tangible with the intangible and constituting meaningful discourse. — Verbal Silence as Figure: Its Contribution to Linguistic Theory (+5 more)

Related

• Turn silence acts independently as a conversational turn, replacing the tangible with the intangible and constituting meaningful discourse. (similarity 0.91)
• Silence is not simple; reevaluating its constitutional status requires distinguishing it from blankness and recognizing its communicative function. (similarity 0.89)
• Silence is not the mere absence of something else, but a complex positive phenomenon (similarity 0.86)
• Silence functions as an underrated conversational presence (similarity 0.84)
• Silence is a positive presence rather than mere absence (similarity 0.84)
• Silence is nothing merely negative; it is not the mere absence of speech, but has a kind of Being of its own. (similarity 0.84)
• Silence is a positive, self-contained reality rather than mere absence. (similarity 0.83)
• Silence is not the absence of something but the presence of everything, the presence of time, undisturbed. (similarity 0.83)
• Speech requires prior solitude and the right to stay silent (similarity 0.83)
• Silence is a primary, objective reality which cannot be traced back to anything else, preserving the mark of the Divine in creation. (similarity 0.83)
• For Picard, silence is not an absence of sound or a void, but has substance and its own reality — silence has Being. (similarity 0.82)
• Silence carries deeper meaning and value than speech does. (similarity 0.82)
• Silence is an active presence that must be experienced, not imagined (similarity 0.81)
• Silence takes its meaning from surrounding sound (similarity 0.81)
• Silence is real, as darkness and cold are real; we feel these as positive sensations, not merely negations of something else. (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Silence is a positive presence rather than mere absence #corroborates (0.90) — Gordon Hempton, John Grossmann, One Square Inch of Silence- One Man’s…, 1294
• Silence functions as an underrated conversational presence #expands (0.85) — Gordon Hempton, John Grossmann, One Square Inch of Silence- One Man’s…, 1023
• Silence is an active presence that must be experienced, not imagined #corroborates (0.80) — Gordon Hempton, John Grossmann, One Square Inch of Silence- One Man’s…, 26
• Silence takes its meaning from surrounding sound #expands (0.75) — Schafer, Murray R, The Soundscape- Our Sonic Environment…, 864