Mówić, milcząc. Nie milczeć, nie mówiąc

The author discusses the problem of silence in communication. Different types of being silent are taken into consideration. It is pointed out that silence treated as a way of communication is a complex issue and many linguists trying to determine the nature of silence and its role in communication tend to describe the phenomenon in very vague, general statements, sometimes even limiting themselves to nothing but comments on sayings or famous quotations. The author tries to indicate which of those remarks are justified from a linguistic point of view. Moreover, the semantic and pragmatic features of the Polish lexemes MILCZENIE (silence), MILCZEĆ (to be silent) and some other notions that are relatively frequently coupled and sometimes, in fact, confused with the above mentioned lexemes, are examined.