Silent Estonians and small talk

• In Event: Amplifying Language at Home and Abroad

Abstract

Small talk is typically defined as a formulaic or superficial mode of talk meant more for establishing social contact rather than providing information. It has negative connotations, although its value is acknowledged. Small talk deserves to be considered in connection with silence: “small talk and silence are probably sociolinguistic universals, but there appear to be important cross-cultural differences in how they are used or tolerated” (Jarowski 2014: 114). Our research analyzes how Estonians tolerate silence and what they think about small talk. As argued by Pajupuu (1997), Estonians tend to dislike superficial conversation and at the same time fail to bring up different topics. In this light, we were also interested in finding out whether this also holds nowadays.
So far we have collected two types of data: (i) 32 interviews carried out in 2020-2021 with Estonians, ages 9 to 69, (ii) additional data consisting of short interviews, written comments etc. It is important to note that these are not examples of actual small talk but respondents’ reflections on what they think about engaging in small talk. Preliminary results show that the majority of respondents feel uncomfortable in such situations but most have techniques that are of help. There are differences between generations and professions in defining what counts as small talk and in strategies for engaging in it.

Jarowski, Adam (2014). Silence and small talk. In Justine Coupland (ed), Small Talk. London, New York: Routledge, 110-132.
Pajupuu, Hille (1997). Eestlased ja soomlased - probleemitud suhtlejad. Keel ja Kirjandus, 8, 547−550.

Short Bio

Renate Pajusalu was born on 13 November 1963 in Tartu, Estonia. She is Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Tartu. Her main research interests are reference and meaning in language and conversation.

Miina Norvik was born on 22 August 1985 in Tallinn, Estonia. She holds a PhD degree in the Finnic languages and defended her thesis in 2015 at the University of Tartu. Her research focuses mainly on the syntax of the Finnic languages. Currently, she is a research fellow at the University of Tartu and a postdoctoral researcher at Uppsala University.

Authors

• Renate Pajusalu, University of Tartu

• Miina Norvik, University of Tartu / Uppsala University