Mistreatment of silence in linguistics studies

Hi, English is not my first language so I apologize for any possible mistakes.

I'm doing a paper on the meaning of silence in communication. I've already asked for help to my Linguistics professor but in all fairness he said this isn't a very studied topic.

I'm aiming to demonstrate why silence is as important as discourse in communication. Firstly I want to dwell a bit on the notion of silence and how academics have defined it. I know there is no such thing as a satisfactory definition of silence, but so far I have looked into Cheryl Glenn (Unspoken: A Rhethoric of Silence) and Jaworski (The power of silence). Any other definitions worth including?

Next I'm talking about the history of the study of silence, and how it hasn't been as studied as its counterpart: discourse. I'm trying to know why this is, any clue? What I have just about now is that Tannon and Scollon illustrated its importance, but that's it.

After that, I want to illustrate how silence and discourse aren't necessarily antonyms (or so I think) because silence can carry the same meaning a phrase can, and there can be silence expressed with words (e.g. small talk, words that are a mere courtesy but that don't lead to anywhere or intend anything). I still don't know how to elaborate this section, anything else worth including here?

This is my first year at uni and just about one of the first ever papers I hand in, also the first time I'm posting on here, so again I'm sorry for any inconvenience. Thank you in advance!