The Image of Silence in the Perceptual Code of Russian Linguistic Culture

The article aims to examine the image of silence in the perceptual code of Russian linguistic culture. The materials of Russian National Corpus are used for determining the verbally expressed characteristics of the concept and its implicit meanings. The analysis of the material allows to characterize silence as an acoustic phenomenon, a situation of human quietness, an emotional and mental state of a person or society and background for other sounds. The image of silence is often personified, its infinity in time and space is emphasized, the connection with the divine principle is actualized, and the power of silence over man is noted. The ambivalence of the image leads to the appearance of both positive and negative assessments of silence, with the latter prevailing