The Pragmatics of Silence in The Poetic Discourse of Shevchenko and in Ancient Greek Tragedy

Abstract

Background . The article is devoted to the analysis of silence as a specific communicative phenomenon in literary discourse, considered within the framework of linguopragmatics as a silence act possessing its own illocutionary force and perlocutionary effect. The relevance of the study is determined by growing interest in non-verbal forms of communication and the insufficient elaboration of the problem of silence in poetic texts, especially in a comparative intercultural perspective. The aim of the study is to identify the pragmatic functions of silence and to compare models of its functioning in the ancient Greek tragedies of Euripides and in the poetic discourse of Taras Shevchenko.
Methods. The study employs pragmatic analysis of communicative acts to determine the illocutionary and perlocutionary characteristics of silence, discourse analysis to reveal its role in character interaction, as well as the comparativetypological method to compare different cultural traditions. In addition, a contextual-interpretative approach to the analysis of literary texts is used.
Results. A typology of silence acts is proposed, encompassing cognitivereflexive, emotional-expressive, contact-regulative, strategic, and existential silence. A distinction between constructive and destructive silence is substantiated on the basis of their perlocutionary effects. It is established that in Euripides' tragedies (Ion, Hippolytus), silence functions as a complex system of information management distributed among multiple subjects, whereas in the poems of T. Shevchenko (The Servant Woman, Kateryna) it is often concentrated in a single character and acquires a more radical character. Common pragmatic mechanisms are identified, in particular the connection of silence with violations of the Cooperative Principle maxims and with face-saving strategies; it is also shown that silence may function either as an instrument of social protection or as a factor of communicative breakdown.
Conclusions. Silence in literary discourse constitutes a full-fledged communicative act that plays a significant role in the formation of dramatic conflict and in the regulation of interpersonal interaction between characters. Constructive silence contributes to the preservation of social order and psychological balance, whereas destructive silence leads to the breakdown of communication and tragic consequences. Despite cultural differences, ancient Greek tragedy and Ukrainian poetry demonstrate the universality of the fundamental pragmatic models of silence.