Pragmatic Metaphorisation of Nature Silence Effect in Poetic Discourse

Abstract

The article considers the pragmatics of silence image in English poetry. Silence being a communicative unit is associated with verbal and non-verbal communication. The purpose of the article is to study the discursive and communicative-pragmatic nature of poetical images of silence in the English-language literary discourse. The universal and cultural functions of this notion were analysed and the main approaches to the poetical silence study were determined. It became clear that the phenomenon of Nature Silence can be actualised with the help of Nature and other landscape images in the field of English literary discourse. Such images must belong to the paradigm of English landscape images represented by Earthy, Aerial and Celestial substantial nature symbols. In terms of discourse-communicative approach to the study of communicative silence, these elements play an important role of the main producers of Nature Silence. This work proposes the new pragmatic and communicative approach of understanding the Nature silence in English literary discourse. The main verbal units that can actualise the poetical image of silence are characterised by the permanent correlation with the different symbols of nature, showing the dominant and peripheral characteristics. Being the pragmatic realisation of silence image, motives of Nature Silence may be considered both as dominant and background.