Abstract/Summary

‚No texts‘ become communicatively relevant when the occurrence of text is either arguably possible, or when the absence of text juxtaposes a contextually determined expectation of the occurrence of text. In both cases, these unresolved expectations can be metacommunicatively explicated. When, where and how can we find such metacommunicative explications? This contribution will use a corpus-based approach and a corpus of British parliamentary debates to find patterns of speech that refer to the absence of text. Apart from explicit references to silence, vocabulary referring to language use and collocating with negations will be analysed. Furthermore, vocabulary relating to lack of activity and collocating with references to language use will be investigated. This article thus provides a methodological template for the empirical analysis of references to no texts. It also seeks to demonstrate the functions of references to the absence of text in political discourse and it will shed light on the communicative norms which are actualised when expectations of speech are stated.