關于交際中沉默的認知理論研究

The Study on The Cognitive Perspective of Silence

Abstract: As researchers pay more and more attentions on human cognition， the research concerning the value of silence in communication makes itself suit for the tendency. Verbal and nonverbal communication can both be treated as part of the same process. Silence definitely belongs to the nonverbal communicative behaviour; therefore， it relies on the ostensive-inferential mode of communication in principle. In this paper， the cognitive perspective of silence is going to be introduced based on the relevance theory proposed by Sperber and Wilson.

摘 要：由于研究者對人類認知越來越多地關注，對交際中沉默的價值研究也越來越趨向于研究人類認知的過程。因為有聲語言交際與無聲語言交際的過程相同，因此，沉默作為無聲語言交際中很重要的一種，它的理解過程也要依賴于明示-推理模式。在本篇論文中，根據斯珀伯和威爾遜提出的關聯理論，沉默將被從認知視角進行理論方面的介紹。

Key words: silence; nonverbal; relevance theory; cognitive perspective

關鍵詞：沉默；無聲語言；關聯理論；認知角度

[中圖分類號]：H03 [文獻標識碼]：A

[文章編號]：1002-2139(2012)-02-0154-01

The relevance theory advanced by Sperber and Wilson is frequently employed to focus on how the communicators express different meanings with silence and how the communicator can interpret these implications. According to Sperber and Wilson’s model， all communication is an ostensive-inferential communication， and a stimulus is used by communicators “to make manifest or more manifest to the audience a set of assumptions”. Thus， nonverbal communication can both be treated as part of the same process as verbal one.

It should be noted that nonverbal communication is generally weaker than verbal one. Silence definitely belongs to the nonverbal communicative behaviour; therefore， it relies on the ostensive-inferential mode of communication in principle. And the reason why it is weaker in that it cannot own manifest assumptions to a hearer in an equally strong manner. On the other hand， to speculate about which assumption(s) the communicator had for the hearer seems more open. How to value the relevance of silence? It is pointed out that the two key factors (contextual effect and processing effort) are both suitable to approach the degree of relevance in silence.

Jaworski (1993: 92) supports the idea by Sperber and Wilson (1987: 746-747) that the stimulus being most relevant is not the most crucial aspect of the theory， and it only be consistent with the principle of relevance， and in order for that to happen， the interpretation of the stimulus does not have to be maximally relevant for the hearer; it must only seem maximally relevant to the communicator. And then Jaworski claims that silence is highly relevant to its hearer by turning to the instances of silence by Davidson (1984:102-128)， who says that “whatever response follows an invitation， offer， and so on， it is perceived by the doer of this act as either an acceptance or a rejection. Silences that occur immediately after the speech act of invitation， offer， request， or proposal are typically interpreted as rejections.” That is to say， to some extent， it does not cost much effort to interpret silence. It is known that when speech occurs， and regardless of the assumptions that may be made manifest， the hearer begins automatically to seek for a context in which a given expression will be regarded as maximally relevance. It is the case with silence.

When communication is expected to take place， silence becomes potentially relevant， if the hearer pays attention to the assumptions made manifest in or with silence and that the hearer can process the silence with ease， so that it will produce sufficiently large contextual effects for it. However， regardless of the amount of effort invested in processing it， a silence may turn out to have very week contextual effects.

BIBLIOGRAPHY：

[1]Arolow， Jacob A. “Silence and the Theory of Technique” [J]. Journal of theAmerican Psychoanalytic Association， 1961 (9): 44-55.

[2]Sperber D， Wilson D. Relevance: Communication and Cognition [M]. Oxford UK: Basil Blackwell， 1986.

[3]Sperber， D Wilson， D. Relevance: Communication and Cognition [M]. (2nd edition). Oxford: Basil Blackwell， 1995.