Firstly, a sociopragmatic model of the interpretation of the silent answer is set up, with focus
on the suspect in custody who is being asked questions by the police or by a lawyer in court.
It is claimed that there are two types of silence—unintentional and intentional. Unintentional
silence is psychological in nature, usually occurring because of personal inhibitions on the
part of the addressee. Intentional silence, on the other hand, is a deliberate attempt by the
addressee not to be cooperative with the addresser. A schema is then put forward that …