Abstract
The paper attempts to look at silence from the point of view of Grice's maxim of quantity, viz. if one has nothing to say, then one is silent. This will be examined against the background of studies that have been published over the last decades especially anthropological research on tribes in Africa (Igbo and Akan) and North America (Western Apaches), and studies on Finnish silence.
About the author
Dennis Kurzon is Professor of Linguistics in the Department of English Language and Literature, University of Haifa. He has published books and articles in the fields of pragmatics especially on silence, the pragmatics of legal discourse, writing systems and adpositions. Recent publications include an article on the romanization of Indian languages (2010), chapters in edited books and articles on silence in journals (2008, 2009, 2010, 2011), as well as entries for handbooks and encyclopaedias.
©[2012] by De Gruyter Mouton Berlin
