The Functions of Interruption in Mixed-Sex Conversations in

He explains that his father buys more drugs even after Nate taking the blame. However, his mother tries to hide the truth by saying, “I don’t understand.” This function is considered as disagreement because Nate disagrees to hide his father’s problem like what his mother does. 2 Floor Taking Floor taking appears 8 times 12 in the mixed-sex conversations in the TV series. This function is used when an interrupter tries to gr ab a current speaker’s floor without changing the topic of the conversation. An example of this function is presented as follows. Anne :Your shirts are exactly how they always are.We both know this isnt about laundry. Howard : Im sorry, but I need everything to be perfect at Eleanors party tonight. I cant screw up. 14600:07:07-00:07:15 Howard is busy in preparing his best suit for attending Eleanor’s party. He intends to offer his business to Eleanor. However, he finds that even his suit is not well prepared. Anne, who is Howard ’s wife, thinks that her husband’s cloth is already perfect. She thinks that his husband is worrying about his preparation too much. She tries to calm Howard down. However, Howard immediately performs interruption to utter his opinion. He says sorry to his wife because he looks so fussy. He is worrying too much because he wants to be perfect in the Eleanor’s party. The function of interruption in the conversation between Anne and Howard above is considered as floor taking. It means that Howard, as the interrupter, grabs Anne’s floor when she is still talking. This function occurs because Howard feels so hurry to voice his opinion. He wants to defend himself and he wins the conversation over Anne. Therefore, he overlaps Anne and he takes Anne’s turn immediately. Then, floor taking also occurs in the conversation between Vannesa and Rufus. Here is the example. Vannesa : What about you? A Humphrey man in a sports coat? Id normally ask if you had a date, but Rufus : but my wife left me, hmm? 18600:15:50-00:15:55 Vannesa comes to Dan’s house to pick him up to a party. However, she does not meet Dan, but she sees Rufus already dressing up. Vannesa asks Rufus ’ plan with his sport coat, whether he wants to go to a party or to attend a date. She feels weird since Rufus has been separated from his wife for a long time. She thinks that it may be impossible for him to go to date with his wife. Before Vannesa finishes her opinion, she is interrupted by Rufus. He knows that Vannesa wants to ask whether he goes out with his wife or another woman. Floor taking appears as the function of the conversation above. Rufus takes Vannesa’s floor and pretends to continue Vannesa’s question about his dating partner. Then, he breaks Vannesa ’s assumption about being single. He wants to show that he still gets a date even without his wife. The other example of floor taking is shown below. Anne: The lengths that you will go to get out of trouble, Nate. Nate: Mom, he has a problem. I need your help, please. 33700:20:03-00:20:09 Howard, Nate ’s father faces a drug problem. Nate says that the drugs do not belong to him, but his father ’s. He convinces her mother to make her father go to rehabilitation. However, Anne, Nate ’s mother, tries to avoid the discussion about Howard ’s problem. She tells Nate to not take a part into the problem. However, Nate refuses to get out of his father ’s problem. In that conversation, the function of the interruption is categorized as floor taking. It occurs because Nate refuses avoiding his father ’s problem. He has an urge to voice his opinion that his father needs go to rehabilitation. Therefore, he takes Anne ’s floor and expresses his opinion when Anne is still talking. 3 Topic Change This function appears 13 times 20 in the mixed-sex conversations in the TV series. Topic change is categorized as one subtopic of intrusive interruption. This function is used when an interrupter cuts a current speaker’s utterance and immediately changes the topic. Here is an example of this function. Police : What are you doing out at this hour? Jenny : I, um Police : Whats your name? 8500:35:05-00:35:08 The conversation above occurs when Jenny is found illegally taking a jacket in the shop of Blair’s mom. Then, a police arrests Jenny and he asks some questions to her. At first, the police asks what Jenny is doing at that hour. However, seeming afraid to face the police, she cannot answer the police’s question directly. Then, the police suddenly changes the question and he asks her name even before Jenny answers the first question. The quick changing of the police question above indicates topic change. The police has many questions to Jenny, so he instantly asks another thing when he does not get the answer directly. This function is regarded as topic change because the police cuts Jenny’s turn of speaking and he changes the topic by asking another question. Another example of this function is presented below. Designer : Well put it on Blairs tab. Jenny : Oh, no, no no. Designer : The girls at that party are my best customers. Why not show off my latest wares? Just return it after the ball. 10600:01:38-00:01:43 Jenny comes to a famous designer to take Blair’s dress for the ball. The designer thinks that Jenny also needs to go to the ball. He offers a bracelet which Jenny can wear in the ball. However, Jenny refuses the offer because she thinks the bracelet is too expensive to her. However, the designer keeps insisting Jenny to wear the bracelet. At first, he offers Jenny by saying, “Well put it on Blairs tab” so Jenny does not need to worry about the price anymore. However, Jenny still refuses the offer. Then, the designer suddenly interrupts her and he changes his offer by saying, “The girls at that party are my best customers. Why not show off my latest wares?” This interruption functions as topic change. The designer’s change of statement indicates that the topic is changed as well. At first, the topic is about the offer to put the bill on Blair’s tab. Then, he cuts Jenny’s turn of speaking and he changes another persuasion statement. He changes the topic by saying that Jenny needs to show his ware and she only needs to return it after the ball. Another example of topic change occurs in the conversation between Vannesa and Rufus which is shown as follows. Vannesa : Okay, well circle back to that. One issue at a time. Rufus : Like where are my keys? 19600:16:05-00:16:08 The conversation above occurs when Vannesa and Rufus are discussing Rufus’ dating partner. Vannesa wants to know more about Rufus’ partner but Rufus immediately performs interruption by asking her about his keys. It means that Rufus does not want to discuss his partner anymore by immediately changing the topic of discussion. 4 Tangentialization Tangentialization becomes the most prominent occurrence of interruption in mixed-sex conversations in Gossip Girl TV series. This function appears 17 times 27 in the conversations. The characters frequently use this function to end or to stop the curren t speaker’s utterance. It also means that the interrupter does not want to hear any further explanation from the current speaker by providing his or her own utterance. This function is used by the interrupter to show that he or she wins in terms of the topic of discussion. An example of this type is shown below. Lily : What he said is that you could come home, not that you should. Eric : But, mom, I thought Lily : I dont wanna argue about this. I need time to think. 1500:06:17-00:06:23 Eric wants to leave the rehabilitation place. Her mother has given him permission to come back home, but suddenly she changes her mind. In the conversation above, Lily refuses Eric’s request to come home. She says that Eric could come home, but he is better to be in the rehabilitation place rather than at home. She thinks that Eric still needs treatment. So, Eric should not come back home yet. However, Eric tries to defend his opinion and he convinces her mother by saying, “But, mom, I thought. However, he gets interrupted before he finishes the utterance. Lily, as the interrupter, refuses any excuse from Eric. She takes Eric’s floor to emphasize her utterance. In the conversation above, the interruption functions as tangentialization because Lily takes Eric’s floor to emphasize her previous utterance before. Lily refuses any excuse from Eric and he does not want to hear any rejection of her order from her son. Another example of tangentialization is also shown as follows. Serena : The end of freshman year, I kind of dated the swim team captain, and he gave me a key so that we could you know, meet up, and Dan : That’s enough said. 631200:26:48-0000:26:56 Serena wants to tell Dan about the owner of the swimming pool key. Serena tells that she was dated the swim team captain in the end of freshman year. He gave Serena the key so that they could date in the swimming pool. However, Serena makes a silence in a second because she feels so hard to explain more about her past relationship to Dan. Then, this chance is used by Dan to perform interruption. In his interruption, Dan says, “That’s enough said” which shows that he wants to end and to change the topic of discussion. In this case, the function of interruption is regarded as tangentialization since Dan tries to prevent Serena from explaining more about her past. Dan does not want to hear the story of Serena’s ex-boyfriend anymore since he is dating Serena by now. Another example of tangentialization also occurs in the conversation between Eric and Serena which is shown below. Serena : Well, its no favor, Eric. Youre in a lot of trouble. Eric : Yeah I know. 7500:30:05-00:30:08 Serena advises Eric to stay out of problems since Eric has been making a lot of problems. However, Eric immediately interrupts Serena when Serena is still talking. Eric performs interruption which functions as tangentialization. Eric’s interruption aims to prevent Serena from talking too much. He also does not want to hear any advice from Serena. Therefore, Eric says, “Yeah I know” to end the discussion. b. Cooperative Interruption 1 Agreement In the mixed-sex conversations between the characters in Gossip Girl TV series, agreement appears 8 times 12. This function occurs when an interrupter wants to show his or her agreement towards the current speaker’s statement. This function is classified into the part of cooperative interruption because the interrupter aims to help the speaker by providing agreement. Here is an example of this function. Serena : Jennys not so bad either. Dan : Yeah? Serena : Yeah, Dan : Yeah I-I-I know. I know. 9500:36:01-00:36:05 Serena and Dan discuss their siblings. Serena tells that her brother is under pressure that makes him should go to rehabilitation. However, Dan thinks that Serena’s little brother, Eric, is still a good boy. Then, Serena replies by saying that Dan’s little sister, Jenny, is also a good girl. Dan is a bit surprised with Serena’s opinion, but Serena convinces him to believe her. However, before Serena can completely utter his opinion, she gets interrupted by Dan. The interruption above functions as agreement. Dan wants to show his agreement towards Serena’s opinion by cutting Serena’s utterance. Dan’s agreement is marked by the word “yeah” showing that he agrees with Serena’s opinion about his sister. Another example of agreement in interruption is shown below. Lily : Oh, I just needed a moment. That what just happened. Rufus : the kiss? Lily : Yeah. it made me feel a little 28600:32:40-00:32:44 Lily confuses about what just happens between her and Rufus. Then, Rufus assumes that it is caused by the kiss between Lily and him. Lily says that Rufus’ opinion is correct. Lily, immediately, performs interruption showing agreement towards Rufus’ statement. The kiss between them has successfully mixed Lily’s feeling. The interruption in the conversation above appears to show Lily’s agreement towards Rufus’ statement. This agreement is marked by the word “yeah” in Lily’s utterance. In addition, agreement in interruption also occurs in the conversation between Eleanor and Howard. Here is the conversation. Eleanor : Oh, its very pretty. Howard : It looks magnificent to me. 36700:28:59-00:29:00 The conversation above occurs when both Eleanor and Howard are seeing Blair putting a diamond ring on her finger. Eleanor and Howard agree that the ring is perfect in Blair’s finger. Eleanor says that the ring is very pretty in Blair’s finger. Almost at the same time, Howard says his opinion with the same meaning as Eleanor’s. In the conversation above, an overlap interruption occurs in the dialogue between Howard and Eleanor. The interruption functions as agreement. Howard agrees with Eleanor’s statement that the ring looks perfect in Blair’s finger. 2 Assistance This function occurs 8 times 12 in the mixed-sex conversations in the TV series. In conversation, assistance occurs when an interrupter wants to help the speaker in uttering his or her idea by providing words, phrases or sentences. An example of this function is shown below. Dan : Tonight? No. No, nothing. Why? Serena : Good, because theres this thing, and youre probably gonna think its stupid, but Dan : try me. 13600:05:55-00:05:06:01 Here, Serena plans to ask Dan to go to a party with her. She calls Dan and she asks whether he has a plan in the night or not. Dan replies that he has no plan in the night. Then, Serena tries to utter her intention, but she thinks that her idea is stupid. Therefore, Serena makes a silent pause. This pause is used by Dan to perform interruption. Dan tries to convince Serena to utter her intention. In the interruption above, Dan aims to assist Serena in finishing her utterance. Dan says, “Try me” to convince Serena to finish her intention. Another example of assistance in interruption also occurs in the conversation between Serena and Dan. Serena :So thats um Dan : Vanessa yeah. 26600:31:30-00:31:31 Vannesa gets jealous when she sees Dan dating another woman. She demands Dan’s explanation about the relationship between them. Dan explains that he only sees Vannesa as his best friend. Vannesa is disappointed with Dan and she leaves him. Then, Serena comes and she asks about what just happen. Serena assumes that the woman is Vannesa who is Dan’s best friend. However, she hesitates to say it loudly then she makes a pause. Realizin g Serena’s hesitance, Dan assists Serena to finish the utterance. He says that the woman is Vannesa. The interruption above functions as assistance. This means that Dan, as the interrupter, helps and assists Serena in finishing her utterance. Serena hesitates to say that she is Vannesa because Dan has not yet introduced that girl to her. Therefore, Serena’s utterance appears uncomplete. Then, Dan assists her uncomplete utterance by saying, “Vannesa yeah”. Such assistance also occurs in the conversation between Dan and his sister. Here is the conversation. Jenny : Oh, uh, our dad dated your mom. Dan : yeah, were not related, though. 54900:30:07-00:30:10 The conversation above occurs when Jenny explains the current situation in the house to Serena. Jenny tells that his dad dated Serena’s mom. To avoid a misunderstanding, Dan cuts and grabs Jenny’s turn to assist Jenny in explaining. Dan adds that his famil y and Serena’s have no relation though their parents were dating. 3 Clarification This function has the least number of occurrences. It appears 4 times 6 in the TV series. This function is used by the interrupter to get the current speaker’s clarification from his or her statement. This function is the least prominent function in mixed-sex conversations of the TV series. It is used only when the interrupter does not get the current speaker’s point in speaking. However, usually a speaker performing interruption has already known what the current speaker’s wants to say. Therefore, this function is rarely found in the use of interruption in the mixed-sex conversation within the TV series. Here is an example of this function. Dan : That is Vannesa : awesome I hope? Dan : Yeah, t-totally.Yes, of course. 12600:05:23-00:05:28 The conversation above occurs when Vannesa suddenly visits Dan’s home after she leaves town for several years. Vannesa’s sudden comeback surprises Dan because Vannesa does not leave any notice before. In the conversation above, Dan wants to show his opinion about Vannesa’s comeback, but he suddenly performs a silent pause. In that pause, Vannesa grabs Dan’s floor and she makes an assumption about Dan’s answer. The function of Vannesa’s interruption is classified as clarification because she makes an assumption about Dan’s answer in a question form. Vannesa makes interruption to make Dan clarify his statement because Dan’s utterance is unclear. Another example of this function is shown below. Nate : Blair. I know how much your future means to you. And youve worked so hard for Yale and everything Blair : What are you talking about? 641200:28:22-00:28:28 In the conversation above, Nate explains his reason in confessing himself as the suspect of swimming pool incident to Blair. However, Blair does not get Nate’s point which makes her perform interruption. The interruption occurs when Nate is still talking. Blair utters a question to make Nate clarify his utterance. In this case, the function of the interruption is clarification since Blair asks Nate to clarify his unclear statement. Another example of clarification is shown as follows. Rufus : But, Lily these past few weeks have been Lily : Have been what? you cant even say it, can you? 48900:25:42-00:25:50 Lily wants to hear Rufus’s opinion about their relationship for the past few weeks. Lily wants to convince herself that Rufus has a feeling for her. However, Rufus remains silent and does not finish his utterance. In the pause, Lily grabs Rufus’s floor and forces Rufus to give her a clarification. In that conversation, the function of interruption is categorized as clarification. It occurs because Lily grabs the turn of Rufus to ask the clarification about their relationship whether Rufus has a feeling toward her or not. In conclusion, based on the discussion, it shows that the types and the functions of interruption are related to one another. It means that every occurrence of interruption has a certain function. The relation between types and functions of interruption appears differently in mixed-sex conversation in Gossip Girl TV series. As an example, an overlap which functions as tangentialization occurs frequently in the mixed-sex conversations within the TV series. On the other hand, overlap is not used as clarification since the data do not show any relation between overlap and clarification. Based on the data above, it shows that overlap becomes the most frequent type of interruption which occurs in the mixed-sex conversations in Gossip Girl TV series. On the other hand, a butting-in interruption becomes the least frequent type of interruption. This result occurs because the male and female characters have an urge to voice their own opinion at the same time by successfully making interruption. Therefore, in this case, they tend to perform an overlap interruption over a butting-in interruption. In addition, the male and female characters of Gossip Girl TV series use interruption as an intrusive act rather than as cooperative act. The male and female characters in Gossip Girl TV series perform interruption when they know what the current speaker’s wants to say. Then, they grab the current speaker’s floor to end or to shorten the utterances. Therefore, they frequently use tangentialization of intrusive interruption rather than clarification of cooperative interruption. Furthermore, the data show that the occurrences of interruption are found in both male and female characters’ speech in Gossip Girl TV series. The result is suitable with the recent studies which propose that men and women have the same opportunity to use interruption within their speech. From total 65 data, the male characters use interruption 42 times within their speech and female characters use interruption 23 times. As the most frequent type, overlap interruption occurs 24 times in men’s speech and only 9 times in women’s speech. It indicates that men have more urgency to express or say their opinion in the middle of conversations by grabbing others turn of speaking. However, butting- in interruption only occurs in women’s speech and none of them occurs in men’s speech in this research. It is because the male characters give the opportunity to female characters to finish their utterances. On the other hand, the male characters tend to use interruption which functions as topic change. It is because they are not interested with the topic of discussion. Therefore, they use interruption to change the topic. Meanwhile, the female characters use interruption as tangentialization which means that they use interruption to end the discussion with men in mixed-sex conversations in the TV series. Furthermore, the data also show that interruption functions as both intrusion and cooperation in conversation. It means that interruption is not only shown as a violation of a conversation, but also as a cooperative act among the speakers. In other words, interruption is not only used as domination, but also as a sign of social relationship. 66

CHAPTER V CONLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS

This chapter is divided into two parts, conclusion and suggestions. In this chapter, two points from research objectives are answered in the conclusion part. In addition, some suggestions to some parties are given in the suggestions part.

A. Conclusion

Based on the findings and discussion, the conclusion is formulated into two points below. 1. The first objective of this research is to identify the types of interruption in mixed-sex conversations in Gossip Girl TV series. In relation to the first objective, all types of interruption are found in the mixed-sex conversations in the selected episodes of the TV series. Those types are simple interruption, overlap interruption, butting-in interruption and silent interruption. Overlap interruption becomes the most frequent type which occurs 33 times 50. On the other hand, butting-in interruption appears as the least prominent type that is used by the characters. It is only used twice 3 in the mixed-sex conversations. The prominence of overlap interruption over the other types indicates that male and female characters have the same urgency to voice their opinions at the same time by performing interruption. It also indicates that they want to say their opinion immediately even when another speaker is still talking. By employing this type of interruption, they cut or stop other’s statement in the middle of conversation. However, this type makes the current speaker finish his or her utterance although heshe is interrupted by another speaker. On the other hand, butting-in interruption appears in the lowest rank among the other types of interruption. This type is commonly known as unsuccessful interruption since an interrupter fails to grab an interruptee’s turn of speaking. In this type, the interruptee succeeds to grab back hisher turn of speaking. However, this type is rarely used by the characters in Gossip Girl since most interuptees rarely grab back their turn when they notice their interlocutor interrupting them. Instead, they tend to give a chance for the interrupter to continue hisher turn because they know that there must be something more important heshe wants to convey when heshe is interrupting. 2. The second objective of this research is to analyze the function of interruption in mixed-sex conversations in Gossip Girl TV series. The functions of interruption are divided into two categories. Those are intrusive interruption and cooperative interruption. Furthermore, intrusive interruption is classified into four subcategories namely disagreement, floor taking, topic change and tangentialization. Then, cooperative interruption is divided into three subcategories namely agreement, assistance and clarification. In this research, tangentialization of intrusive interruption becomes the most frequent function that occurs in the mixed-sex conversations. It occurs 17 times 27 from 65 total data. On the other hand, clarification of cooperative interruption only occurs 4 times 6. This is the least function which occurs in the mixed-sex conversations. Tangentialization becomes a part of intrusive interruption because the interrupter urges to stop or to cut the interruptee from speaking. In this function, the interrupter aims to prevent the interruptee from talking too much. Then, the interrupter immediately cuts the current speaker’s utterance and provides hisher own words to continue the turn. In this research, this function is in the highest rank in terms of occurrence. It indicates that the characters mostly use interruption to win over the other speakers in conversation. By performing this function, the characters do not want to hear any further explanation from the current speakers and prevent the speakers from finishing their explanation. On the other hand, clarification of cooperative interruption becomes the least prominent function in the mixed-sex conversations in Gossip Girl TV series. This function occurs when an interrupter does not get the point of the current speaker’s utterance. However, it rarely occurs between the characters because they tend to use interruption to cut or to stop other speakers from talking, not because they want a clarification.

B. Suggestions

Based on the conclusion above, several suggestions were made to the following parties. 1. To students of Linguistics Interruption is an interesting phenomenon which occurs in daily life. Interruption has two basic functions namely intrusive and cooperative interruption. It means that interruption does not always refer to as a violation in the turn of speaking. It also functions to show cooperation between speakers in a conversation. Therefore, instead of only focusing on seeing interruption as a violation, analyzing its cooperative function as well will result better findings. 2. To other researchers The approach used in this research is Sociolinguistics. It is used to show interruption in mixed-sex conversations which focuses on gender differences. Therefore, to enrich the investigated areas, other researchers are suggested to analyze interruption by focusing on different issues. As an example, they can analyze interruption that occurs in speakers of different ages or different cultures. In addition, TV series becomes the object of analysis of this research. In relation to this, the future researchers may use different objects to broaden the analysis of interruption within society, such as movies, TV sitcoms, advertisements, and many others. 3. To readers in general This research gives information and knowledge on the types and functions of interruption which occur in mixed-sex conversations in a TV series. It is expected that by reading this study, the readers will understand more about interruption and they can use it appropriately in daily conversation.