Social perceptions of Yakuts (Sakha) on the correlation between speech and silence in communication

The paper outlines the results of a study of youth’s social perceptions of the correlation between speech and silence in communication. Pauses and silence are extralinguistic subchannels of non-verbal communication, they can carry a semantic load, and their use in communication has cultural differences. The sample consisted of students from Yakutsk who identified their ethnicity as Sakha: 107 people between the ages of 18 and 25. Social perceptions were revealed through a questionnaire containing sentence fragment and Yakut folk proverbs reflecting the value of silence and restraint in words. The data obtained were processed using content analysis, which made it possible to identify the core and periphery of the social idea of silence in communication. The core of the perceptions were such components as the need to openly express opinions and feelings in the process of communication, as well as the strong force of words, both positive and negative, affecting the partner, and in this regard, the need for careful handling of the word.