ABSTRACT

Except for scholars in communication disorders, communication researchers do not

generally use the term literally when they refer to someone “not having a voice.” Usually

the phrase refers to a person or group of people without the rhetorical power to influence

events or without the ability to make a strong statement (e.g., Bell, 1997). However, in

addition to those who are born without the ability to speak, there are people who literally

had a voice and lost it, imposing oral-verbal silence-that is, a primarily nonvocal state.