Definitions of Interruption Interruption
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In this dialogue, simple interruption occurs because DT launches his turn when MT is still managing his utterance which has not come to completion.
Simultaneous speech is noticed as a few parts of MT’s and DT’s utterances appear
together. Since MT leaves his utterance incomplete, DT proceeds with his talk and succeeds to take over the floor. Thus, the turn holder is exchanged.
2 Overlap Interruption
Overlap interruption is the second type of interruption in Ferguson’s
classification. In this interruption, the second speaker begins to talk when the first
speaker’s utterance is nearing completion. D
ue to this, the first speaker and the second
speaker’s utterance appear simultaneously. Despite the interruption, the
first speaker is still able to manage a complete utterance. After the completion of hisher utterance, the first speaker gives up speaking and lets the second speaker
gain the floor. Hence, the switch of turns is present. An example is shown below. MT
: … i
t cannot tell you exactly wha
t economies it’s going to make in
each department,
it just can’t
. DT :
Can it tell you that it will be able to make any?
Beattie, 1982: 102 This extract exhibits one case of overlap interruption in which MT is
interrupted by DT when his sentence is about to be completed. Consequently, their utterances come out simultaneously. Although the interruption starts at a
period when he is still talking, MT can make up a complete utterance before he stops speaking. As DT maintains his utterance, he can hold the floor afterwards.
In this case, the turn to talk which is initially claimed by MT is handed over to a different speaker, that is to say, DT.
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3 Butting-in Interruption
Different from the first and the second type, the third type of interruption which is called butting-in interruption is regarded as unsuccessful interruption. In
this situation, the second speaker breaks off speaking prematurely after the initiation of hisher interruption. Instead of yielding hisher turn to speak, the first
speaker insists on continuing his
her talk and ignores the second speaker’s
interruption. At this point, simultaneous speech is present but is not necessarily. By reason of
the second speaker’s failure at seizing the floor, the turns exchange
does not occur. Here is an example. S1
: … Although I don’t think anybody would do that unless they’re
going against what she says and I
S2 : Ya, but
–
S1 :
can’t see anybody going
against that. Marche and Peterson, 1993: 395
Butting-in interruption is noticed in the conversation as S2, who tries to interrupt S1, abandons his speech shortly after he institutes it. S2 decides to quit
talking because S1 does not offer him a chance to talk and carries on speaking. In this situation, simultaneous speech occurs. While S1 is able to keep his turn, S2
fails to get a turn. That is to say, there is no exchange of turns.
4 Silent Interruption
Silent interruption becomes the fourth or the last type of interruption
included in Ferguson’s categorization. This type
happens when the second speaker commences speaking during a pause or silence in th
e first speaker’s mid
- utterance. Thereby, simultaneous speech does not emerge when the interruption is
launched. While the second speaker tries to take control of the floor, the first
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speaker does not attempt to regain the floor. Instead, the first speaker decides to abandon hisher unfinished speech. In consequence, the turn is transferred to the
second speaker. The following dialogue is given as an example. S1 : But before you knew all this stuff, before you knew that she was
–
pause
S2 : That was Tina.
Marche and Peterson, 1993: 395 In the instance above, it can be seen that silent interruption occurs when S2
institutes an utterance while S1 produces a pause in the middle of talking. Since the interruption is performed during a silence, simultaneous speech does not exist.
After the initiation of the interruption, S1 yields the floor as she calls off hisher explanation. As a consequence,
S1’s utterance appears incomplete
and the floor is owned by S1. On this occasion, the exchange of turns is present.