The Silence in the Eastern Slavic Model of the World: As a Concept and As a Communicative Category (Based on the Russian and Ukrainian Language Representation)

Abstract

Silence as a special subject of linguistic research has been attracting the attention of scientists since the middle of the 20th century. Silence as a value, as a concept and silence as a communication designate two areas of research in modern Linguistics. However, the identification of specific features in the silent behavior of communicants in different cultures, the recipient possibility to interpret the silent sender of the null text, the language ability to capture this behavior indicate the interdependence of communication and concept.
This article deals with the peculiarities of the formation and development of the concept of silence in the Eastern Slavic model of the world and its influence on the formation of modern Russian and Ukrainian communicative behavior.
In Eastern Slavic linguoculture silence is influenced by Orthodox religious and philosophical system, which coincides with the establishment of the formation of the Eastern Slavic written language system. This fact causes the interest to the representation of the idea of ​​silence in the Old Russian language and to the development of tendencies in the modern Ukrainian and Russian languages. Using historical and contemporary dictionaries shows the way how  silence as a spiritual and religious rite transformed into a contemplative silence as a feature of the Russian and Ukrainian national characters; how silence as a dialogue with God turned into the dialogue with oneself, into a special type of communication where the sender and the recipient are united in one person, in I;  how silence as the capacity to express something without words changed into the ability to understand and be understood without words. The abundant representation of the idea of silence, polyprefixion which characterizes the Slavic languages in general and the Eastern Slavic languages in particular allow native speakers of Russian and Ukrainian languages to interpret and define the interlocutor´s silent behavior more precisely.