Functional Requirements of Silence and Speech between Argumentation and Pragmatic Outcome: Samples from the Holy Qur’an

Abstract

Objectives: This research aims to examine the transactional image of silence and speech between the argumentative proof and the pragmatic outcome, by studying examples of dialogues in the Holy Qur’an.

Methods: The research adopted the argumentative pragmatic approach. To reveal the functional roles of silence and speech.

Results: The research concluded, after studying Quranic models that intersect in terms of external contexts and the nature of communicative situations, that if speech represents eloquence and statement, silence represents another option chosen by the speaker as an alternative in some situations to speech, eloquence, and statement. The eloquent speaker chooses to speak or to remain silent and diverts speech or silence into a rhetorical, pragmatic policy to achieve an effect and a persuasive function, bearing in mind the law of interaction and providing a set of conditions set by the context, and taken care of by the context.

Conclusions: Intentional silence, devoid of the inability to speak, represents a functional expressive tool that parallels speech in the communicative process. Through silence, the speaker performs an implicit communicative process with argumentative deliberative dimensions, and the recipient has a fundamental role in deciphering silence and deducing its implications.