The Linguistic Functions and Educational Implications of Silence in Pinter's The Dumb Waiter

Abstract

Though silence means a complete absence of audible sound, it is in no way related to absolute lack of communication. While speaking, people put smaller boundaries in between small chunks of their talk in an attempt to follow up larger ones. They could be among syllables, words, or elements in terms of phonology, semantics, or syntax respectively, with the goal of maintaining some social relations, in terms of pragma- linguistics. Even in written texts, particularly in those of drama, silence can be employed to some extent in a way that necessitates a kind of investigation. Silence, then, seems to be a meaningful tool whether it is used within the verbal communication or in the absence of speech in non-verbal communication. Hence, the present study aims at investigating the communicative functions of silence in Pinter's The Dumb Waiter, and showing the meanings of silence whether verbally or non-verbally used. Further, by using Jaworski's (2006) model of silence functions, it inspects the applicability of the three major language functions, ideational, interpersonal and textual, to silence as a tool for communication. It is, accordingly, hypothesized that Pinter employs the three functions in his play; the most employed function of them is the interpersonal. Silence, in addition, is used to reflect the ‘power’ of one character over the others and identifies the ‘distance’ between them. Thus, the comedy of menace, as Pinter calls it, is constructed. The study has, eventually, proved that silence has the same significance and functions of language. It has also concluded that investigating silence in literature, specifically in drama, adds very much to the interpretation, understanding, and the teaching of it.