Interpersonal function of silence in Vietnamese conversation

Abstract

Silence is one of the important characteristics of conversation. From the perspective of functional systematic linguistics, we find that silence also manifests three metafunctions as speech. They are ideational function, interpersonal function, and textual function. Among them, interpersonal function is the most salient. This article analyzes the interpersonal function of silence from three dimensions: communicational participant connection or separation, communicational participant activation and implement face strategy of communicational participant.