The term "unsaid" refers what is not explicitly stated, what is hidden and/or implied in the speech of an individual or a group of people. The unsaid may be the product of intimidation; of a mulling over of thought; or of bafflement in the face of the inexpressible.

Linguistics

Sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural Norm (sociology), norms, expectations, and context (language use), context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on languag ...

points out that in normal communication what is left unsaid is as important as what is actually said—that we expect our auditors regularly to fill in the

social context The social environment, social context, sociocultural context or milieu refers to the immediate physical and social setting in which people live or in which something happens or develops. It includes the culture that the individual was educate ...

norm Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) and technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) consist of materials, usually industrial wastes or by-products enriched with radioactive elements found in the envir ...

s of our conversations as we proceed.

Basil Bernstein Basil Bernard Bernstein (1 November 1924 – 24 September 2000) was a British sociologist known for his work in the sociology of education. He worked on socio-linguistics and the connection between the manner of speaking and social organizatio ...

saw one difference between the restricted code and the elaborated code of speech is that more would be left implicit in the former than the latter.

Ethnology

ethnology Ethnology (from the grc-gre, ἔθνος, meaning 'nation') is an academic field that compares and analyzes the characteristics of different peoples and the relationships between them (compare cultural anthropology, cultural, social anthropolo ...

ethnomethodology Ethnomethodology is the study of how social order is produced in and through processes of social interaction.Garfinkel, H. (1974) 'The origins of the term ethnomethodology', in R.Turner (Ed.) Ethnomethodology, Penguin, Harmondsworth, pp 15–18. I ...

established a strong link between unsaid and ''axiomatic''.

Harold Garfinkel Harold Garfinkel (October 29, 1917 – April 21, 2011) was an American sociologist and ethnomethodologist, who taught at the University of California, Los Angeles. Having developed and established ethnomethodology as a field of inquiry in sociolo ...

, following Durkheim, stressed that in any given situation, even a legally binding contract, the terms of agreement rest upon the 90% of unspoken assumptions that underlie the visible (spoken) tip of the interactive iceberg. Edward T. Hall argued that much cross-cultural miscommunication stemmed from neglect of the silent, unspoken, but differing cultural patterns that each participant unconsciously took for granted.

Psychoanalysis

Luce Irigaray Luce Irigaray (born 3 May 1930) is a Belgian-born French feminist, philosopher, linguist, psycholinguist, psychoanalyst, and cultural theorist who examined the uses and misuses of language in relation to women. Irigaray's first and most well know ...

has emphasised the importance of listening to the unsaid dimension of discourse in psychoanalytic practice—something which may shed light on the unconscious

phantasies ''Phantasies'' is the name of a series of animation, animated cartoons produced by the Screen Gems#Animation studio: 1933–1948, Screen Gems studio for Columbia Pictures from 1939 to 1946. The series, featuring characters such as Willoughby Wre ...

of the person being analysed. Other psychotherapies have also emphasised the importance of the non-verbal component of the patient's communication, sometimes privileging this over the verbal content. Behind all such thinking stands

Freud Sigmund Freud ( , ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating pathologies explained as originating in conflicts in ...

's dictum: "no mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips...at every pore".

Cultural examples

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

is said to have owed his success to his attention to the unsaid in his client's communications. *In '' Small World'', the heroine cheekily excuses her lack of note-taking to a Sorbonne professor by saying: "it is not what you say that impresses me most, it is what you are silent about: ideas, morality, love, death, things...''Vos silences profonds''". David Lodge, ''Small World'' (1985) p. 265

References

External links

* {{Nonverbal communication Human communication Nonverbal communication Sociolinguistics Ethnology Psychotherapy