EN
The present paper considers the word ‘silence’ (‘тишина’), which is perceived as one of the words that in artistic language of Prishvin have expressive value, despite their lack of a referent. For that reason the word ‘silence’ can be described as metaphorical and polyfunctional and it always plays a significant ideological and artistic role. The author of the paper discusses different ways in which the lexem in question functions in collocations, taking into consideration its associative as well as connotative potentiality.