A cognitive linguistic study of silence pause-based incongruities in selected instances from mind your language's sitcom series

Abstract EN

The present research aims at : first, to examine the reasons behind using silence / pause-based unintentional incongruities in selected instances from the British sitcom mind your language; second, to explore specifically the types of silence / pause-based unintentional incongruities and the different facial gestures that accompany each of these types.

to meet these two objectives, the analysis will be theoretically and conceptually-based, respectively.

conclusions, as far as the first objective is concerned, have shown that silence can be used to reflect: the sense of being inattentive; lack of understanding; being unfamiliar with what one hears; the time needed for thinking and associating, and the act of hiding one's nervousness, etc.

as for pause, it is used for reflecting the sense of being confused; indicating that there is an interrupting event; and giving time to oneself to comprehend, re-consider, and correct what one has said, etc.

as for the second objective, it has been concluded that silence appears to have the four categories cited by kostiuk (2012); these included the structural, reflexive, tactical, and ignorant types of silence.

pauses, on the other hand, have only three categories: tactical, structural, and reflexive.

speaking of the reactions and facial expressions that accompany silence when encountering unintentionally incongruous events, they include the following: closing one's eyes, and feeling amazed, proud, shocked, and speechless, etc.

whereas those that accompany pause are : feeling confused, asking a question for clarification, and opening one's mouth, etc.