By employing the scientific knowledge mapping technique, this paper provided a quantitative study of the literature on the topic of voice behavior and silence behavior in international influential journals from 1970 to 2020. It sorted out the core themes of voice and silence and the current status of their relationship, depicted the evolution of the relationship between voice behavior and silence behavior, and summarized the frontier hotspots and development trends in this field. At first, three international progressing stages (germination period, growth period, evolution period) were categorized, and we found that the growth trends of voice behavior and silence behavior were relatively consistent in all phases, but the growth rates differed significantly. Besides, combined with the international research themes in the field of voice and silence, the voice-silence relationship was analyzed horizontally in the content dimension, and the relationship was found to exhibit a complex status quo of independence in opposition, unity in opposition, and difference in unity. Then, by portraying the research hotspots in each stage, the voice-silence relationship was analyzed longitudinally in the temporal dimension, its evolutionary process was clarified, and its essence was summarized. Finally, with emergent analysis techniques, future research directions such as deepening research of silence behavior, responses to voice or silence, cross-cultural research, innovation in research methods and objects were summarized and proposed.