Silence as a Marker of the Emotional and Rational Components of the Communicative Behavior of the Characters in the novel “Virgin Soil Upturned” by M.A. Sholokhov

The object of the research is silence as an artistic detail in Mikhail Sholokhov's novel “Virgin soil upturned”. Sholokhov's attention to silence as an element of the characters ' communicative behavior is more characteristic than for other writers as Leonid Leonov, Alexey Tolstoy, Vyacheslav Shishkov. It is important that in the novel “Virgin soil upturned” the author very rarely refers to verbs that convey the idea of silence in the imperative function. The main attention is focused on silence as an artistic detail of the image of Semyon Davydov's communicative behavior. We can assume that his silence is equally rational and emotionally motivated, but the rational prevails. When we consider the rational motives for Davydov's silence, we understand that more often he is motivated by a desire to analyze and understand information or to give himself time to choose appropriate communication tactics in
continuing the dialogue. However, there are several cases where the rationality of silence is manifested in the character's awareness of the lack of reasons to start or continue communication.
The research showed that Sholokhov, more than other authors, is characterized by the image of silence as a secondary action, sometimes extending over a fairly long period of time and accompanying a number of other actions. This increases the degree of realism of the image.