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Non-fluencies like pauses also play a crucial part in paralanguage. Pauses punctuate
the speech making it effective understandable. A prolonged pause is known as silence. Silence

is one attribute of paralanguage that speaks volumes. Silence in various contexts suggests
different emotions, such as agreement, disagreement, affirmation, denial, anger, calmness,
acceptance, rejection, isolation and participation.

For example, when the boss in the office floats an idea of reducing the lunch hour from
one hour to thirty minutes every day, some individuals will remain silent out of respect for their

superior; others will remain silent, but with visible restlessness in their body language,
suggesting dissatisfaction and disagreement. Therefore, it is said that “Speech is silver,
silence is gold”.

3.6.1.4. SILENCE

Silence is also a component of paralanguage that conveys meaning. In general, silence
denotes the absence of any kind of noise. However, in communication, it is interpreted as a lack

of speech. The absence of speech doesn‟t mean that the person is not communicating with the
other person. Silence is a very effective mode of communication. The meaning of silence varies
depending on the circumstances. Silent hesitation and pauses belong to the component of

paralinguistic system of language. Making a decision as to how to word something before letting
the listener know that is connected with silent hesitation.

Knowing when to pause is a critical skill. When nervous or tense, we may exhibit a

tendency to fill all pauses, often by inserting meaningless sounds or phrases such as uh, you
know, well, or okay in the effort to fill voids.

3.6.1.5. COMMUNICATIVE FUNCTIONS OF VOCALICS

Following are the various communicative functions of vocalics:

 Repetition: Vocalic cues reinforce other verbal and nonverbal cues (e.g., saying “I‟m not
sure” with an uncertain tone).
 Complementing: Vocalic cues elaborate on or modify verbal and nonverbal meaning

(e.g., the pitch and volume used to say “I love sweet potatoes” would add context to the
meaning of the sentence, such as the degree to which the person loves sweet potatoes

or the use of sarcasm).
 Accenting: Vocalic cues allow us to emphasize particular parts of a message, which

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