Acknowledgements -- List of contributors -- Part One: Introductory -- Introduction: An overview -- Aesthetic, communicative and political silences in Laurie Anderson's performance art -- Part Two: Linguistics and pragmatics -- Silence and markedness theory -- Silence and politeness -- Part Three: Discourse analysis -- Silence and the acquisition of status in verbal interaction -- Discourses of the unsayable: Death implicative talk in geriatric medical consultations -- Part Four: Narrative analysis -- Silence and revelation in the English traditional ballad -- Silent and silenced voices: Interactional construction of audience in social work talk -- Part Five: Ethnography of communication -- Giving street directions: The silent role of women -- Silence in ritual communication -- Part Six: Cross-cultural communication -- The silent Finn revisited -- Cross-cultural back channels in English refusals: A source of trouble -- Part Seven: Beyond language -- Music and silence -- Silence across modalities -- Silence in paintings: Let me count the ways -- Silence and communication in art -- Part Eight: Teaching silence -- Teaching "Discovering silence" -- Part Nine: Epilogue -- White and white: Metacommunicative and metaphorical silences -- Subject index.