Previous Research Findings LITERATURE REVIEW CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

Related to those speech differences between men and women, interruption becomes the main concern of this analysis. Interruption is classified into several functions and types. Ferguson in Beattie, 1982: 100 states there are four types of interruption: simple interruption, overlap, butting-in interruption and silent interruption. On the other hand, Murata in Li, 2001: 269-270 states that there are two basic functions of interruption. Those are cooperative and intrusive interruption. Furthermore, Zimmerman and West 1975: 116-117 claim that interruption occurs frequently in mixed-sex conversations. Thus, in this research, interruptions in mixed- sex conversations are selected as the main concern of the analysis. In this analysis, Gossip Girl TV series is selected as the object of this research. This TV series depicts the social life of Upper East Side people in America. In this TV series, many interruptions occur within conversations among men and women. Therefore, this research concerns to analyze the types of interruption which employ different functions in each of its occurrence. 31 Figure 2. The Analytical Construct Sociolinguistics Interruption Switching Pause Topic Choice Back-channel Choice Initiation of Conversation Speech Act Choice Types of Interruption Functions of Interruption 1. Simple Interruption 2. Overlap Interruption 3. Butting-in Interruption 4. Silent Interruption Cooperative Interruption Gossip Girl TV Series Intrusive Interruption 1. Disagreement 2. Floor Taking 3. Topic Change 4. Tangentialization 1. Agreement 2. Assistance 3. Clarification Social Context A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Interruption in Mixed-Sex Conversations Reflected in Gossip Girl TV Series Speech Differences of Men and Women Language and Gender Language and Age Language and Power Language and Social Status 32

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD

A. Type of Research

This research was conducted by using mixed method of qualitative and quantitative method. The qualitative method was used to describe the results of the quantitative analysis. According to Hancock, Ockleford and Windridge 2009: 7, qualitative research is a type of research which focuses on description and interpretation of social phenomena. In this research, the findings were presented in a description to give a deeper understanding towards the result of the research. Qualitative research also focuses on people’s life experiences and interpretations of those experiences Vanderstoep and Johnston, 2009: 168. It fitted this research as this study aimed to find and describe types and functions of interruption in mixed-sex conversations in Gossip Girl TV series. To support the qualitative analysis, the data were also analyzed quantitatively with percentages showing the occurence of interruption. The percentages were used to show the most often and the least prominent types of interruption in mixed-sex conversations in Gossip Girl TV series.

B. Form, Context and Source of Data

The data of this research were in the form of the utterances spoken by the characters of Gossip Girl TV series within mixed-sex conversations. Meanwhile, the context of this research was dialogues that contained interruption.