Both conversational analysis and examination of interactive rituals concentrate on distinguishing the structure of everyday conversations and language definition of social situations of the social interaction participants. It seems though that the researchers devote too little attention to the development of methods and techniques of research, detailed analysis of the transcription of keeping quiet by the participants of the social interaction. The aim of the article is to focus attention on the problems of treating meaningful silence by researchers as a speech, the tool and means of social actor expression, as important as other parts of speech. Some social contexts and conditions of silence were shown within different situations and worlds. The causes, results and myths of employees silence were presented. Silence was analysed in the context of existing in social worlds orders as a sign of crystallization and formation of statuses and micro social processes with special attention on the role of silence of social actors. The text uses some experience of language researchers, sociologists of language and emotion.

The meaning of silence in music therapy

In this paper, the author attempts to provide a comprehensive description of the complex phenomenon of silence and sheds light on its significance within the context of music therapy. By considering various definitions of silence, as well as ways of approaching the phenomenon of silence, in both the domain of interpersonal communication and the abundant realm of sound, the author aims to highlight the multifaceted nature of the matter. The author discusses the distinction between the silence and the muteness, draws attention to an interdisciplinary character of the field, enumerates diverse angles of considering the issue, and examines the role of silence within a larger perspective of fields of psychotherapy and music therapy. In the presented cases of music therapy work, silence is a kind of a therapist’s tool. Owing to an insufficient amount of research papers on silence in music therapy, it is impossible to produce pioneering findings in the very field. In this paper the author ventures to summarise latest data, points out the urgency of delving deeper into the issue, and discloses novel prospects for music therapy to be discovered in pursuit of investigation of the ambiguous notion of silence.