The Types of Interruption in Mixed-Sex Conversations in

although the interrupter comes to grab the floor. An example below shows the occurrence of an overlap. Eleanor : I had no idea you were bringing a date. How delightful. Lily : Oh, this is Rufus Humphrey. Rufus : Oh, its not a date. 20600:18:53-00:18:59 In that scene, Lily comes to Eleanor’s party with Rufus as her partner. Eleanor thinks that Rufus is Lily’s new dating partner. As a matter of fact, Lily and Rufus are only friends. Then, Rufus and Lily perform an overlap to clarify their relationship. In Lily’s turn, she wants to introduce her friend named Rufus Humphrey. At the same time, Rufus tries to explain that they are not dating in his turn. However, their explanation comes at the same time which causes an overlap. An overlap, in this case, occurs when Lily and Rufus are trying to clarify the misunderstanding at the same time. At that time, Lily is the one who should take the turn, but Rufus immediately grabs Lily’s floor at the same time. This occurrence of interruption is regarded as an overlap because Lily and Rufus talk at the same time and grab one ano ther’s turn of speaking. Another example of an overlap is also shown as follows. Dan : Will you excuse me? I just saw the last person I ever expected to see. Serena : Yeah. How can I say no to that? Dan : Im sorry. 22600:29:54-00:29:58 The conversation above occurs between Dan and Serena. Dan unexpectedly meets Vannesa when he is dating with Serena at a party. Vannesa, who has a feeling for Dan, is shocked and he immediately walks away from Dan. Then, Dan tries to approach Vannesa. However, he gets confused and he does not know how to cut the conversation because he is in the middle of the talk to Serena. In that conversation, Dan says an excuse to leave Serena for a while. An interruption occurs when Serena replies Dan. In the interruption, Dan is in a hurry to approach Vannesa while he has to make an appropriate excuse to his girlfriend. Therefore, Dan performs interruption to stop the conversation. The type of interruption which occurs in the conversation is regarded as an overlap. It is an overlap because Serena finishes her utterance when Dan starts to interrupt her. In addition, this overlap occurs in a simultaneous speech. This means that an overlap occurs when both Serena and Dan are talking at the same time. Another example of an overlap also occurs in the conversation between Dan and Vannesa as shown below. Dan : I-I merely refrained from sharing the truth, which would have sounded a lot more like a lie than what I told you. Vannesa : Humphrey. 23600:30:14-00:30:19 In the conversation above, Dan tries to explain about the relationship between him and Serena. He wants to tell Vannesa that he has a new girlfriend recently. However, Dan feels difficult to explain the relationship because Vannesa still has a feeling for him. Therefore, Vannesa cuts Dan’s explanation by saying his last name which is Humphrey. In the example above, Vannesa wants Dan to stop the explanation because she does not want to hear any explanation anymore. However, Dan has finished his utterance when Vannesa starts to interrupt him. In this case, the type of interruption is regarded as an overlap. In addition, an overlap also occurs between Nate and Anne. The example is shown below. Nate : I mean, I guess he thought itd be easier on everyone if I took the hit, but they were his. Anne : I dont understand. Nate : No. He promised me hed flush the coke, then I caught him buying more. 32700:19:53-00:20:03 In the conversation above, Nate discuss with her mother about his father ’s problem. Nate explains that his father is the one who buys the drugs not himself. However, his father puts the blame to Nate and he makes Nate to be the person who uses the drugs. In that conversation, Anne does not believe Nate’s explanation by u ttering, “I don’t understand”. However, Nate tries to cuts Anne’s utterance because he has not finished the explanation yet. This type of interruption is classified as an overlap because Anne still finishes her utterance when Nate starts to interrupt her. c. Butting-in Interruption The third type of interruption occurs in the mixed-sex conversations in the TV series is a butting-in interruption. This type is only found twice in the selected episodes of the TV series and appears as the lowest rank among the types of interruption. This type is claimed as unsuccessful interruption which becomes the reason why this function is rarely used by men and women in mixed-sex conversations. A Butting-in interruption occurs when an interrupter cuts the current speaker ’s turn of the talk but the interruptee takes back his or her turn. It means that the interrupter fails to grab the interruptee’s floor. An example of this type is described below. Alison : Look, I have made mistakes, and I know that, but if shes in your life, youre never gonna get over her. Rufus : Ali son. Alison : This is it, Rufus, okay? if you wanna make this work, then you have to make a choice. 55900:31:13-00:31:23 The conversation above occurs between Alison and Rufus. Alison is Rufu s’ wife and Lily is Rufus’ ex-girlfriend. Alison finds a fact that Rufus still has a feeling for his ex-girlfriend. Alison wants to hear a clear explanation from his husband. Then, she asks Rufus to choose between her and Lily. However, Rufus tries to stop the discussion and he cuts Alison’s utterance by calling Alison’s name but he fails to do so. However, Alison does not want to stop the discussion and she does not want to lose her turn of speaking. She keeps trying to force Rufus choose between her and Lily by saying a clear statement, “This is it, Rufus, okay?” and she grabs back her turn from Rufus. This occurrence of interruption refers to a butting-in interruption because Alison succeeds to grab back her turn of the talk. At first, Rufus tries to cut Alison’s turn, but Alison immediately grabs back her turn. It means that Rufus fails to perform interruption. Another example of this type is also shown below. Lily : Yeah, it made me feel a little Rufus : nostal gic? Lily : Nauseous. 29600:32:44-00:32:46 In the example above, Lily and Rufus are discussing a sudden kissing which just happens between them. In that conversation, Lily wants to say her opinion about the kissing. However, Rufus tries to interrupt Lily to help her finishing the utterance. In the interruption, Rufus fails in providing the word which makes him interrupted back by Lily. In this case, the type of interruption is regarded as a butting-in interruption since Lily grabs back her floor after Rufus interrupts her. It means that Rufus, as the interrupter, fails to do the interruption. d. Silent Interruption The fourth type of interruption which is found in the mixed-sex conversations in the TV series is a silent interruption. In this type, the utterance of the current speaker has not yet completed but he or she makes a stop in a sudden. This type is named as a silent interruption because there is a silent pause in the speaker’s utterance. There is no simultaneous speech between the speakers in this type since the interruption comes after a speaker stops his or her utterance in the middle of the talk. An example of a silent interruption is described as follows. Dan : I know it may not compare to, uh, a suite at The Ritz in Paris or a chalet in Aspen, and it might be a fire hazard, but Serena : but its perfect. 37700:34:04-00:34:13 Dan and Serena want to make a date. They choose Dan’s house to be the place rather than other expensive places. The conversation above occurs when Dan shows his decorated room to Serena. Dan says that his room is not like a suite room at The Ritz hotel in Paris or a chalet in Aspen. However, Dan intentionally does not complete his explanation. He gives a chance to Serena to express her opinion about Dan’s room decoration. Therefore, Dan makes a silent pause in the middle of the talk. This silence is used by Serena to perform interruption. The type of interruption which occurs in the conversation above is regarded as a silent interruption. This means that interruption occurs when Dan performs a silent pause. This silent pause is intentionally performed by Dan. The pause is used by Serena as a chance to take the floor. Another example of a silent interruption is shown below. Jenny : Yeah, its about my mom. You know, cause she had this perfume that she always wore. And it was rose and Dan : Sandalwood. 46900:19:34-00:19:39 Lily tells that she has a horse named Rosewood. Jenny replies that she also knows the name. It is his father ’s song made for her mother when they were young. Jenny sings few lines of the song for Lily, but she forgets the last line. Then, Dan helps her to finish the line by saying “Sandalwood”. In the conversation above, Jenny makes a silent pause because she does not remember the line completely. Therefore, Dan comes to makes his turn to help Jenny finishing the line. In this case, a silent interruption occurs when Jenny makes a silent pause for a second. Then, the pause is used by Dan to perform interruption. Another example of a silent interruption which also occurs in the conversation between Lily and Rufus is described 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 Rufus and Lily are discussing their relationship in the past few weeks. Lily wants to know the clarity of their relationship. In that conversation, Rufus performs a silent pause because he cannot describe his feeling towards Lily. Then, Lily grabs Ruf us’ turn of the talk to break the silence. Lily assumes that Rufus cannot express his feeling because he still has a feeling towards her. However, the fact that he is a married man forces him to make a silence when Lily asks about their relationship. That type of interruption is regarded as a silent interruption because Rufus does not finish his utterance and he makes a silent pause in the middle of the talk. Therefore, this silence is used as an opport unity by Lily to grab Rufus’ turn of the talk.

2. The Functions of Interruption in Mixed-Sex Conversations in

Gossip Girl TV Series Interruption has two functions, as intrusive and cooperative act. Those functions are found in the mixed-sex conversations between the characters in the selected episodes of Gossip Girl TV series. On the other hand, those two functions are divided into several subcategories. Intrusive interruption has four subcategories such as disagreement, floor taking, topic change and tangentialization. On the other hand, cooperative interruption is divided into three subcategories such as agreement, assistance and clarification. The further explanation of those functions is described below. a. Intrusive Interruption 1 Disagreement This function appears 7 times in the mixed-sex conversations of the selected episodes in the TV series. Disagreement occurs when an interrupter disagrees and has different opinion from the current speaker’s utterance. Therefore, the interrupter cuts the current speaker from speaking which functions to show hisher disagreement. To make this function clear, an example of disagreement is presented below. Anne : Your father and his headaches. Give the man some gravy. Probably took the vicodin and forgot. Had some whiskey, and the next thing you know Nate : Mom, seriously. Did you hear anything the doctor said? with what he took, he could have cured 30 headaches. 51900:28:01-00:28:14 Anne and Nate are discussing Howard’s illness. Anne and Nate utter different opinion. Anne thinks that her husband does not need any treatment. She thinks that his husband’s illness is only a headache which can be cured by drinking whiskey and viccodin. However, Nate thinks differently. He thinks that his fathe r’s illness is serious. Nate says that his father needs to be cured quickly. These different opinions indicate that Nate disagrees with her mom’s statement. Then, an interruption occurs when Nate wants to voice his own opinion. He shows his disagreement by saying “Mom, seriously.” The function of the interruption above is disagreement. It is regarded as disagreeme nt because Nate’s statement is opposite to his mom’s statement. Anne, in her statement, says that his husband does not need any treatment. However, Nate thinks differently from his mother. He thinks that his father faces a serious problem and they need to help him. Another example is shown as follows. Serena : Yeah, well, I dont think that pact is so secret. I think all of our parents signed it. Nate : But Im not a little kid anymore. He doesnt have to shut me out. 17600:14:50-00:14:57 Nate tells Serena his dad’s problem. Nate says that his father uses drugs and his father has some problems in his business. Serena tries to make him calm by saying all parents have the same financial problem in their life. However, Nate disagrees with Sere na’s statement. Then, he performs interruption. The interruption functions as disagreement because Nate and Serena have different opinions upon Nate’s father problem. Serena wants Nate to not worry and to not think too much about it. However, Nate thinks that he is not a little kid anymore. Nate says that his parents should not make him stay away from the problem. Another disagreement once again occurs in the conversation between Nate and his mother. The conversation is presented below. Nate : I mean, I guess he thought itd be easier on everyone if I took the hit, but they were his. Anne : I dont understand. Nate : No, he promised me hed flush the coke, then I caught His buying more. 32700:19:53-00:20:03 In the conversation above, Nate says that the drugs do not belong to him, but his father’s. Nate tells that he takes the blame to make the problem easier for his father. However, Anne, seems trying to hide the truth. She actually knows that the drugs are n ot Nate’s. Then, Nate performs interruption to explain the problem clearly. 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