A SOCIOLINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF INTERRUPTION IN MIXED-SEX CONVERSATIONS REFLECTED IN GOSSIP GIRL TV SERIES.

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Attainment of Sarjana Sastra Degree in English Language and Literature

AGNES DELVIS AYUNDA 11211144012

ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE STUDY PROGRAM ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS YOGYAKARTA STATE UNIVERSITY

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My success can only come from Allah. In Him I trust and unto Him I look. (Q.S. Hud, 11: 88)

Allah does not burden a soul beyond that it can bear. (Q.S. Al-Baqarah, 2: 286)

Indeed Allah is with those who patiently endure. (Q.S. Al-Anfal, 8: 46)

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This thesis is dedicated to:

my mom, Ermawati,

and

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blessing to me to complete this thesis. In addition, I also thank many parties who helped and supported me to finish my thesis. Therefore, my deepest gratitude is delivered to:

1. Suhaini M. Saleh, M.A, my first supervisor, for his support, suggestion, advice and patience in helping me finish this thesis, so that I could finish this thesis well;

2. Paulus Kurnianta, M.Hum, my second supervisor, for his critical analysis and question on English grammar and expression, so that I could gain a better understanding and make a better correction to improve my writing skill;

3. Asruddin B. Tou, Ph.D, my academic advisor, for his motivation, support, and patience in teaching and guiding me during the process of study;

4. all lecturers of English Education Department of Yogyakarta State University, particularly the lecturers of English Language and Literature study program, who have taught and shared their knowledge during my college years;

5. my mom, Ermawati, and my dad, Dodik Junaidi, S.E, who always give me their support, care, and prayer, and teach me to be a better person;

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writing time, so that I could finish this thesis well;

8. all my mates from G class, Ajuma, Tata, Joan, Lut, Difara, Anin, Kiki, Zidni, Rira, Pakde, Aham, Abe, Rizky, Bangun, Halim, Palupi and Fathan, for supporting me during our wonderful college times;

9. my lovely mates, Depi, Arum, Dilla, Nana, for our unforgetable times and memories; and

10.all people who have given their prayer and support who cannot be mentioned one by one.

Finally, even though I have done this thesis writing, I realize that it is still far from perfection. Therefore, any criticisms and suggestions for the improvement of this thesis are welcomed. Hopefully, this thesis will give some contibutions to readers and other researchers.

Yogyakarta, January 28, 2016

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APPROVAL SHEET ... ii

RATIFICATION SHEET ... iii

SURAT PERNYATAAN ... iv

MOTTOS ... v

DEDICATION ... vi

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ... ix

LIST OF TABLES, FIGURES AND SYMBOLS ... xi

ABSTRACT ... xii

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study ... 1

B. Research Focus ... 5

C. Formulation of the Problems ... 6

D. Objectives of the Study ... 6

E. Significance of the Study ... 6

CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW AND CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK A. Literature Review ... 8

1. Sociolinguistics ... 8

2. Language and Society ... 9

3. Language and Gender ... 10

4. Speech Differences of Men and Women ... 12

a. Interruption ... 12

b. Switching pause ... 13

c. Topic choice ... 13

d. Back-channel choice ... 14

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c. Functions of Interruption ... 21

6. Gossip Girl TV Series ... 25

B. Previous Research Findings ... 27

C. Conceptual Framework and Analytical Construct ... 29

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD A. Type of Research ... 32

B. Form, Context and Source of Data ... 32

C. Instruments of the Research ... 33

D. Technique of Data Collection ... 33

E. Technique of Data Analysis ... 35

F. Data Trustworthiness ... 36

CHAPTER IV FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION A. Findings ... 37

B. Discussion ... 40

1. The Types of Interruption in Mixed-Sex Conversations in Gossip Girl TV Series ... 40

2. The Functions of Interruptions in Mixed-Sex Conversations in Gossip Girl TV Series ... 49

CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION A. Conclusion ... 66

B. Suggestions ... 68

REFERENCES ... 70

APPENDICES Appendix A. Data Sheet of Types and Functions of Interruption in Mixed-Sex Conversations in Gossip Girl TV Series ... 73

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Mixed-Sex Conversations in Gossip Girl TV Series ... 34 Table 2 : Frequency of Occurrence of Types and Functions of

Interruption in Gossip Girl TV Series ... 37

Figures

Figure 1 : Classification of Interruption ... 18 Figure 2 : Analytical Construct ... 31

Symbols

/……… : indicates a pause ≥ 200 m/sec word 1

word 2 : the brace indicates interruptions and the italic word indicates simultaneous speech

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11211144012 ABSTRACT

This research investigates interruption in the mixed-sex conversations presented in Gossip Girl TV series. The objectives of this research are to identify the types and to discover the functions of interruption in the mixed-sex conversations in

Gossip Girl TV series.

This research employed sociolinguistics as the approach of analysis. It was conducted by using a mixed-method qualitative and quantitative. The data were in the form of utterances spoken by the characters of Gossip Girl TV series in the mixed-sex conversations. In addition, the context of the data was the dialogues that contained interruption. Meanwhile, the source of data of this research was the videos of the first season of Gossip Girl TV series. The primary instrument of this research was the researcher herself and the secondary instrument was a data sheet. The data were collected by selecting the dialogues that contained interruption, and then classified the collected data into the data sheet. The techniques of data analysis were conversation analysis and referential analysis. The analysis of research findings were checked by conducting triangulation. The triangulation was done by discussing and consulting the data to the supervisors and the peer reviewers.

The result of this research are explained as follows. First, all types of interruption are found in Gossip Girl TV series. The findings show that overlap becomes the most frequent type and butting-in interruption becomes the least frequent type of interruption. 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. Therefore, in this case, they tend to perform overlap interruption over butting-in interruption. Second, all functions of interruption are found in the TV series. The functions of interruption are divided into intrusive and cooperative interruption. The result shows that the male and female characters of Gossip Girl TV series use interruption as an intrusive act rather than as a cooperative act. The male characters tend to use interruption which functions as topic change. It is because they are not interested with the topic of discussion. On the other hand, the female characters in

Gossip Girl TV series mostly perform interruption as tangentialization which means that they use interruption to end the discussion with men in mixed-sex conversations in the TV series.

Keywords: sociolinguistic analysis, interruption, mixed-sex conversations, Gossip Girl TV series

1 A. Background of the Study

People have conversation to communicate with others in a society. Conversation can be defined as a spoken interaction among people within a society in everyday life (Wardaugh, 2006: 12). The conversation occurs between two or more people as the participants of a conversation. In addition, conversation functions as a medium to obtain or deliver message, information or news where this function can be achieved by a successful conversation. An indication of a successful conversation is a smooth interaction between the participants in a conversation. However, sometimes the smoothness of interaction cannot be achieved because there is a gap or an interruption within a conversation.

Interruption in a conversation is categorized as a violation of turn-taking system (Zimmerman and West, 1983: 104). The violation means that a speaker takes over the previous speaker’s turn. In addition, interruption occurs when a person has an urge to express his or her thought before beginning to respond. It occurs when a speaker talks before the previous speaker completes the utterances. In a conversation, turn-taking can be defined as the organization of talking. The rule of a conversation requires only one person speaking at a time and another one becoming the listener. Furthermore, the turn-taking system has a function to make the listener understand what the speaker says and then the speaker obtains the response given by the listener. In this case, Stenstroom (1994: 1) claims that turn-taking and cooperation are two

main principles of conversation. However, this turn-taking system does not always occur in a conversation. Thus, in other words, interruption happens when the speakers disobey these two main principles.

On the other hand, interruption is not always regarded as a disruptive act of conversation. In line with this statement, James and Clark (in Tannen, 1993: 238) state that interruption can function as a supportive and a cooperative speech act. It means that the speakers may work together and support one another in a conversation. In other words, interruption also functions as a signal of solidarity between speakers. This solidarity occurs when a speaker adds comments in the middle of conversation which may be considered as an active listening act instead of an act of grabbing the floor. Therefore, to understand whether an interruption functions negatively or positively, it is necessary to know the meaning and the aim behind the interruption uttered.

In the occurences of interruption, many cases shows that men tend to interrupt women in conversation. Thus, it indicates that men attempt to dominate the conversation. The domination occurs because men may have greater knowledge of the topic of discussion. In this case, men want to show that they have power in society more than women. The discussion on the difference between men and women in employing interruption is related to language and gender. In addition, Zimmerman and West (1975: 116) state that interruption is commonly found in mixed-sex conversations and rarely found in same-sex conversations. Therefore, since interruption occurs in mixed-sex conversations, it indicates that interruption can be one way to show gender differences of power and dominance in social life.

However, another study discovered men and women have the same opportunity in the use of interruption (James and Clark, 1993: 233). Therefore, the difference is not only placed on gender, but also on the different power and status of an individual in society. In this case, either men or women, who have higher status in society, may have the capability to use interruption in a conversation. A mother, for example, who has more power towards her children, may have more authority to interrupt her children’s utterances in a conversation.

Sociolinguistics is one of the approaches to analyze interruption since this phenomenon occurs in daily conversation. Sociolinguistics is a study that investigates the relationships between language and society. In this study, the discussion about interruption in conversation is bounded under the subtopic of language and gender. Therefore, to discover the existence of interruption, the one which should be investigated is men’s and women’s speech. In addition, from the previous statement, it is clear that interruption frequently occurs in mixed-sex conversations. However, this phenomenon is found as a problematic case since men and women employ different speech strategies to interact with each other within a society where consequently interruption may lead to misunderstanding between men and women in a conversation.

For that reason, interruption seems to be an interesting phenomenon to be analyzed. In investigating this phenomenon within conversations, a medium as the object of analysis is needed. Since dealing with social phenomenon, daily conversations become the suitable object to be analyzed. Daily conversations, in this case, occur in many forms in various media, for example in movies, talk shows, news

interviews, and many others. In addition, interruption also occurs in television drama or series and Gossip Girl is one of them. In this television drama, there are many interruptions occur since it deals with the daily life of men and women in America.

Gossip Girl is a popular TV series in America which was produced from 2007 until 2012 in six seasons during that period. The success of this TV series is seen from the first season of Gossip Girl which becomes the most successful drama during that time. This drama portrays American lifestyle and society and shows interactions among the upper class people in which the portrayals of men’s and women’s interactions are clearly illustrated. This drama also depicts how those people live within certain rules in their society and denotes how power and status become important aspects to rule society.

Hence, Gossip Girl, especially the first season, is selected as the object of this research for three reasons. First, studying interruptions in Gossip Girl TV series, which is a representation of real life in America, can help people have more understanding and awareness towards interruption which occurs in daily conversations.Furthermore, since Gossip Girl TV has succeeded in grabbing a lot of audiences, this TV series can be a device to increase people’s awareness towards interruptions.

Second, this TV series portrays the upper class society’s life in America which shows how men and women should behave appropriately in every occassion of their daily life. Thus, Gossip Girl TV series become a suitable object to illustrate how the characters employ different speech strategies particularly in using interruption within their conversations. Third, there are a lot of interruptions found in the

mixed-sex conversations among the characters. Besides, the representation of people’s daily life here makes this TV series more suitable to be the research object as interruption is commonly found in the daily conversations among the characters.

B. Research Focus

There are several problems that can be identified based on the conversations among the characters. Those problems can be identified through sociolinguistics approach since the TV series brings a theme about upper class society. The first problem is gender issues on how men and women use different languages in a society. In this case, the conversations among the characters can be investigated in terms of the linguistic forms that are used by male and female characters.

Second, the topic of conversations among the characters can also be analyzed since there are a lot of characters with different stories and social backgrounds. Therefore, different topics also occur among different characters in this TV series. The third problem that can be identified is the speech styles of male and female characters. There are several different speech styles between men and women which can be investigated, for example, in terms of vocabulary choices, interruptions, tag questions, verbal fillers and many others.

However, this thesis only focuses on the phenomenon of interruption due to the limitation of the researcher’s ability, knowledge and time. Consequently, this research is limited to the mixed-sex conversations in the first season of Gossip Girl

TV series. For this reason, there are two problems to be analyzed. The first is the types of interruption in mixed-sex conversations. In line with this, Beattie (1982: 100) mentions four types of interruption in conversation. Those are overlap

interruption, simple interruption, silent interruption, and butting-in interruption. Therefore, the classifications of interruption of Gossip Girl TV series are revealed through this research. The second problem is the functions of interruption. According to Murata (in Li, 2001: 269-270) interruption functions as a cooperative and disruptive act. Therefore, these functions are analyzed within this research.

C. Formulation of the Problems

Based on the research focus, two problems are formulated as follows. 1. What are the types of interruption appeared in the mixed-sex conversations

in Gossip Girl TV series?

2. What are the functions of interruption found in the mixed-sex conversations in Gossip Girl TV series?

D. Objectives of the Study

The objectives of this research are:

1. to identify the types of interruption in the mixed-sex conversations in

Gossip Girl TV series, and

2. to discover the functions of interruption in the mixed-sex conversations in

Gossip Girl TV series.

E. Significance of the Study

This research is expected to provide some contributions both theoretically and practically.

a. Theoretically, the research findings are expected to enrich the knowledge about sociolinguistic phenomena in the society, particularly on interruption.

b. Practically, this research can provide some references that are related to interruption which can be used by other researchers to broaden knowledge on this phenomenon.

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CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW & CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

A. Literature Review 1. Sociolinguistics

As the member of society, men and women employ different speech strategies in their conversations. Women prefer to use speech style that functions to support other speakers, to build a connection with others and to show solidarity within their society. On the other hand, in their interactions, men use different style from women that functions to compete and to show their position in society since they are aware of their social hierarchy. Thus, the ways men and women interact are related to the social function of interaction as well as the speakers’ social status. These language phenomena are discussed in the field of Sociolinguistics.

Sociolinguistics is the study of the ways people use language in social interaction (Chaika, 1982: 2). Sociolinguistics comes from the word ‘socio’ which means society and ‘Linguistics’ which means the study of language. This implies that in understanding language, people have to consider some social factors surrounding the language being used. Furthermore, Chaika (1989: 2) states that every social institution is maintained by language. It means that other than merely to communicate with others, language is also used to preserve a social system in a certain social institution.

The purpose of studying Sociolinguistics is to obtain a better understanding of how language functions for communication in society (Wardaugh, 2006: 13). Language, in addition, has a great power in society. It can be used to show status,

gender, group membership, education and so on (Wardaugh, 2006: 15). In this case, the relationship between language and gender are discussed under the study of Sociolinguistics. The other purpose of studying this field is to be aware of people’s behavior which can be observed through the use of language which people use to reveal their personal identity, character and background (Chaika, 1982: 2).

In short, language phenomena, which are related to social factors, are analyzed under the study of Sociolinguistics. There are two purposes of learning and understanding Sociolinguistics. First, it functions to show how languages are used in society. Second, it functions to show people’s identity, behavior, character and background.

2. Language and Society

Language is bounded within a society that it is impossible to understand one without the other. It has been stated before that every social institution is maintained by language (Chaika, 1982: 2). In this case, the social institution includes law, religion, government, education and family are maintained by language. People use language within their social interaction to show their identity, character or background.

Every society has different way of using language. In sociolinguistics term, the difference is called as language variety. Hudson and Ferguson (in Wardaugh, 2006: 25) define variety of language as a specific term of linguistic items or human speech patterns that associates with some external factors. In other words, every society differs in the use of sounds, words, or grammatical features in which these linguistic items are related to a geographical area or a social group. It can be said that

the use of language by certain society aims to show their unique identity or background to the other society.

The discussion of sociolinguistics is also related to the relationship between the use of linguistic items, such as sounds, words, grammatical features, with the concepts of identity, power, class, gender, or status. In relation with this, Wardaugh (2006: 10) states that the social structure determines linguistic structure or behavior. As an example, in age-grading phenomenon, young children speak differently from older children and, in turn, children speak differently from mature adults. In addition, Fairclogh (in Xu, 2009: 10) gives another example of the relationship between language and social class or status. The example is placed in the use of one linguistic feature which is interruption between doctors and medical students. He states that the doctors interrupt more than the students. In this case, it shows that the powerful participants tend to control and constrain the contributions of non-powerful participants in the use of interruption.

In summary, people use language in every social interaction. Language is used to show people’s identity, status, class, power, or gender in society. In other words, people use certain language features to fulfill their purposes in social interaction. Therefore, the discussion of language cannot be separated from its society as well.

3. Language and Gender

The topic of language and gender is one of the subtopics of Sociolinguistics. This field discusses different language use between men and women in a particular language. Not merely talking about the language, studying men’s and women’s

language can also reveal the roles they play in the society. In this case, gender means as an important key to men’sand women’s identity in society.

The term gender has a larger scope than sex. Zimmerman and West (1987: 125-127) determine sex as the given and gender as achievement. It is an achievement or accomplishment of the interactional activity for social needs as the expressions of masculine and feminine natures. On the opposite, the term sex is only used as a biological basis to distinguish between male and female. Thus, it can be said that the term gender is related to social construction meanwhile sex is connected to the biological factor of humans.

The discussion of gender lays on men’s language against women’s which is discussed different communication styles employed by men and women. Tannen (1990: 9) states that the different communicative styles happen because in a conversation men and women have different purposes in using language where women’s speech intends to focus on connection and men’s speech focuses on status. In other words, women concern to develop intimacy with other people in conversation. On the other hand, men tend to ignore people’s intimacy in order to save their position in social hierarchy.

To sum up, gender in general statement is defined as an important key showing human’s identity. Furthermore, since language is known as a medium to show human’s identity and status in society, therefore the discussion about gender is also related to how people from different gender use language. Then, by understanding the different speech strategies of men and women, their social roles and identity can also be revealed.

4. Speech Differences of Men and Women

According to Coates (in Xu, 2009: 6) women and men have a tendency for developing different communicative competence. Women, for instance, tend to use speech style which functions to support other speakers and show their solidarity to the others. On the opposite, men use competitive styles in showing their individuality and emphasizing the hierarchical relationship in society.

In addition, Poynton (1989: 69) states that the differences between men’s and women’s speech in terms of linguistic features are presented in three linguistic structures. Those are discourse, lexicogrammar and phonology. In the level of discourse, Poynton (1989: 88) mentions that there are six features. Those are interruption, switching pause, topic choice, back-channel choice, speech acts choice, and initiating conversation. In the level of grammar, the differences are classified by rank such as clause, group and word. In the level of phonology, the differences are realized into two variants namely phonological and intonation. This research focuses on the discourse stratum since it implicates the conversational structure of conversation.

a. Interruption

Interruption is defined as the act that occurs when a speaker starts to speak before the previous speaker finishes her or his last words. In this case, interruption is categorized as a violation act in a speaker’s turn because this act is used as a way for exercising power and control in a conversation (Zimmerman and West, 1983: 103). However, some critical researchers find that interruption is also used to show support and solidarity. This statement is supported by Greenwood in Tannen (1994: 60) who

states that interruption is a sign of social comfort in conversation. In this case, interruption does not only refer to a negative act, but also a positive one. In relation to language and gender, the occurrence of interruption is found more often in men’s speech rather than women’s in mixed-sex conversation (Zimmerman and West, 1975: 116).

b. Switching pause

The process of conversation occurs when there is a speech exchange of the speakers (Sacks et al in Zimmerman and West, 1975: 107). It means that the speaker should follow a rule that only one person speaks at a time and another speaker becomes the hearer. The process between one exchange and the next is marked by a switching pause. In relation to language and gender, Poynton (1989: 89) states that this style is commonly found in white male’sspeech rather than white female’s in mixed-sex dyads. On the contrary, Zimmerman and West (1975: 118) argue that the pause is found more in female conversational segment in the mixed-sex conversation rather than men.

c. Topic choice

As fulfilling different social roles, in conversation men and women might have different interest to talk about. According to Moore in Bischoping (1993: 1) men and women are different in terms of topic choices. Women are commonly talking about the persons of the opposite sex, or about clothes, building and interior decoration in the same-sex conversation. On the other hand, the topic of money, business or amusement occurs in men’s conversation.

Similarly, Poynton (1989: 71-73) proposes an argument that in discourse stratum men tend to reject women’s topic choices. Therefore in a conversation men are noticed as more assertive because they talk important and prestigious subjects such as sport and competition compared to women who talk more about home and family.

d. Back-channel choice

An indication of a smooth conversation is a feedback or response from the listener to the speaker. This feedback becomes an important element to show the continuation of turn-taking system. According to Wardaugh (2006: 302), this kind of feedback is classified as back-channel. There are many signals which indicate the back-channel process, such as the nods of approval and the using of expressions of

mmhm and yes. Wardaugh (2006: 326) also states that women use more back-channel signals to encourage others to continue speaking rather than men.

e. Speech act choice

Speech act is defined as the actions that are performed via utterances (Yule, 1996: 47). These acts include some actions such as apology, compliment, invitation, promise, command and request. Related to this, Poynton (1989: 89) mentions that men use more command form rather than women which functions as imperative. Lakoff (1973: 56) also adds that men and women use different forms of command. Men tend to use direct order while women tend to use tag question. She explains further that these different forms occur because men and women pursue different

objectives in using language. Men, in this case, want to show their power by using a direct command while women use tag question to show politeness.

f. Initiation of conversation

In conversation, the dominant is usually the one who initiates or raises the topic. James and Clarke (1993: 232) support this statement by stating that controlling a turn and a topic of conversation shows domination and power. In addition, Poynton (1989: 89) claims that women try to initiate a conversation more often than men do. However, women succeed less in initiating conversations because of lack of men cooperation.

5. Interruption

a. Definition of Interruption

In a conversation, the smooth exchange of turn of speaking between the speakers becomes an important indication of a successful interaction. It means that the participants play a role as a speaker or a listener in the right time. However, sometimes a speaker attempts to disrupt the other’s turn and this occurrence is regarded as interruption.

Interruption is defined as the act of speaking where one person appears to talk while another person is already talking (James and Clarke, 1993: 232). Similarly, Zimmerman and West (1975: 117) argue that interruption is a violation which occurs in the speaker’s turn. Therefore, in this case interruption is categorized as a deviation of turn-taking system where only one person should speak at a time.

Interruption occurs when a person has an urge to express his or her thought before beginning to respond. Pearson (1985: 197) state that the reason a person employs interruption is because he or she feels enthusiastic about something they have to share and impatient about waiting their turn. It happens because a person believes that his or her thought is more important than others.

Interruption is commonly found in men’s speech rather than women’s. Holmes (in James and Clarke, 1993: 231) states that men interrupt others more often than women do, and men interrupt women more than in reverse. However, some recent studies suggest that men and women have the same opportunity in using interruption within their speech. James and Clarke (1993: 233) argue that women and men are same in using simultaneous talk to show involvement and rapport. It means that interruption is not only used as showing gender difference, but also showing the social status of an individual.

The occurrence of interruption, according to Zimmerman and West (1975: 116) is rarely found in same-sex conversations and frequently found in mixed-sex conversations. Their study shows that only 7 interruptions occur in same-sex conversations and 48 interruptions occur in mixed-sex conversations. This result is supported by Xu (2009: 28) who also finds that interruptions are more commonly found in mixed-sex than in same-sex conversations.

Interruption is regarded as an attempt to show dominance and power since it is related to an act of violation in turn-taking rules. This statement is supported by Zimmerman and West (1983: 103) and James and Clarke (1993: 23) who similarly conclude that interruption functions as a device of showing power, control and

dominance in conversation. In line with this, Xu (2009: 10) explains that dominance is shown when a powerful participant tends to control and to constrain a non-powerful participant’s speech by interrupting and taking the turn. This act, according to Eakins and Eakins (in Xu, 2009: 10), is related to social status where higher status speakers interrupt more often than lower speakers.

In contrast, Greenwood (in Tannen, 1994: 60) states that a high rate of interruptions in a conversation is a sign of social comfort in preadolescent boys and girls with their friends. Beattie (1982: 97) also suggests that interruption is not only as an act to show domination, but also as an indication of social relationships. Xioquan and Walter (2003: 350) also provide some recent data where interruptions are also used to show support, rapport and solidarity in actual conversations.

In showing the occurrence of interruption, Sacks and Schegloff (in Beattie, 1982: 103) classify the symbols that are used as transcription of interruption in a conversation. Those symbols are explained as follows.

/ : indicates a pause ≥ 200 m/sec

{ : the brace indicates interruptions and the italic word indicates simultaneous speech

To sum up, interruption occurs when a speaker takes a turn of a current speaker’s right to speak. This act can be regarded as a negative or positive act. It means interruption is used either as a violation or a support to other speaker’s statement in a conversation. In addition, the existence of interruption occurs more often among men and women in mixed-sex conversations rather than in same-sex conversations. For that reason, this research is conducted to reveal the types and functions of interruption in mixed-sex conversations.

b. Types of Interruption

There are four types of interruption that are classified by Ferguson (1977) and developed by Beattie (1982: 100-103). Those are simple interruption, overlap interruption, butting-in interruption and silent interruption. Those four types of interruption in conversation are shown in classification of interruption below.

1) Simple interruption

In this type, the speakers exchange the turns within a simultaneous talk. Therefore, the interruption occurs in the current speaker’s speech. The interrupter comes to interrupt the first speaker which makes the utterance of the first speaker incomplete. Here is the example:

B1 : ...and I have a class at three/ so

B2 : I’msure you’ll be in by then dear (Zimmerman and West, 1975: 114) In the conversation above, B1 is the first speaker and B2 is the second speaker. It is shown that B2 interrupts B1’s utterance where B2 stands as the interruptee and B1 as the interrupter. The interruption makes B1 unable to finish the line and B2 takes over the previous speaker’s turn.

2) Overlap

Overlap occurs in the exchange of turns where simultaneous speech presents. It belongs to interruption because the second speaker attempts to grab the first speaker’s floor. However, in this type, there is no pause in the speaker’s utterances. Thus, it makes the speaker complete his/her utterances during simultaneous talk. An example is shown as below.

MT : ... it cannot tell you exactly what economies it’s going to make it each department it just can’t.

DT : can it tell you that it will be able to make any? (Beattie, 1982: 102) The conversation above occurs between Margareth Thatcher (MT) and Denis Tuohy (DT). The conversation shows the indication of overlap because MT is

interrupted by DT during the simultaneous speech. However, MT does not stop her utterances and completes her/his utterances at last.

3) Butting-in interruption

This type occurs when an interrupter fails to interrupt the interuptee. This phenomenon occurs because the first speaker wants to defend the floor which makes the second speaker fail to grab the current speaker’s turn. This type requires exchanges of turn in a simultaneous talk. An example is noted as below.

MT : ... if you’ve got the money in your pocket/you can choose/whether you spend it on things which attract Value Added Tax/or not/ DT : You

s-MT : andthe main necessities don’t

(Beattie, 1982: 101-102) In that conversation, DT, as the interrupter, wants to grab MT’s floor to finish the utterance. However, MT, as the interruptee, does not want to give up on her turn and grab the floor back from DT.

4) Silent interruption

It is called silent interruption because there is no simultaneous talk during conversation. This interruption occurs when the first speaker’s utterance appears incomplete which makes the second speaker have an opportunity to grab the floor. Here is an example to illustrate the silent interruptions.

A : But before you knew all this stuff, before you know that she was/

B : That was Tina

The conversation above shows that A’s utterance is incomplete. However, there is no simultaneous speech during the conversation. In this case, the second speaker attempts to grab the floor because the first speaker stops his or her utterances.

c. Functions of Interruption

According to Murata (in Li, 2001: 269-270) there are two basic functions of interruption. Those are cooperative and intrusive interruption. A further explanation about those two types is presented below.

1) Intrusive Interruption

In this category, interruption functions as a disruptive act in which violation of a speaker’s turn in talking occurs. In addition, this act also refers to sign of threats by disrupting other’s turn when the current speaker is still talking. This intrusive act has three subcategories that are proposed by Murata (in Li, 2001: 269-270) and another one borrowed from Kennedy and Camden (in Li, 2001: 269). Those subcategories are disagreement, floor taking, topic change, and tangentialization.

a) Disagreement

Disagreement occurs when an interrupter disagrees with the interruptee’s statement and wants to express her or his own utterance immediately. Here is an example of disagreement.

A : It’s not worth saying in the first place.

M : But don’t you think he would feel better if she told him.

In the example above, A becomes the first speaker and M is the second speaker. In the conversation above, M interrupts A because M disagrees with A’s opinion. In that example, M expresses that he wants to hold his or her opinion instead of accepting another speaker’s opinion.

b) Floor taking

In this subcategory of intrusive interruption, the interrupter tries to take the interruptee’s place and time in talking in order to voice his or her own opinion. In floor taking, the interrupter does not change the current topic of discussion and only want to voice his or her opinion toward the topic. In this function, the interrupter usually develops the current topic of discussion by performing and interruption. An example of this subcategory is shown as follows.

MT : ... People forget/that he was one of the best ministers of social/services this country’s ever had and he

DT : but that’s one kind of public spending.

(Beattie, 1982: 101) In the example above, MT and DT discuss about a former minister of social. MT argues that the minister was the best one among the former ministers of social. However, DT cut MT’s turn of speaking before MT finishes the utterance. DT argues that the minister was one kind of public spending. On that conversation, it is shown that DT wants to voice his opinion without changing the current topic of discussion.

c) Topic change

In this function, the interrupter is more aggressive in taking the turn of the interruptee. For that reason, the interrupter shows his or her opinion by changing the topic of discussion. An example is seen below.

H: I think that

W: Do you want some more salad?

(Tannen, 1994: 59) In that example, H appears as the interruptee and W is the interrupter. H is interrupted by W before he completes the statement. In that conversation, H wants to say something, however before completing the utterance, W interrupts H’s turn of speaking. In the conversation, W immediately changes the topic of discussion by offering some salad to H. The changing of topic occurs because W has an urge to offer the salad before H completes his turn.

d) Tangentialization

In this subcategory, the interrupter immediately tries to stop the previous speaker from talking in the middle of conversation. In this case, the interrupter does not want to hear another speaker’s opinion and prevent it by providing his or her own utterances. An example of this subcategory is presented below.

M: I guess you’re right, but what I said is true too.

A: So I win. I win I win. I win.

(Beaumont et al, 2001: 431) In the example above, M tries to emphasize his opinion. However, A suddenly cuts M’s floor and says “So I win. I win I win. I win”. It indicates that A

does not want to hear M’s opinion and want to immediately finish the discussiong by performing such utterance.

2) Cooperative Interruption

Besides functioning as a disruptive act, interruption also functions as a cooperative act. In this function, interruption is used to show agreement or support to other speaker’s opinion. Related to this, Murata, Kennedy and Camden (in Li, 2001: 269) propose three subcategories of this function. Those are agreement, assistance, and clarification.

a) Agreement

Agreement occurs when a speaker interrupts other speaker’s utterance in order to show concurrence, compliance, understanding or support. It means the interrupter has the same opinion as the interruptee. To make this function clear, one example is shown as follow.

Peg : The part I didn’t like was putting everybody’s snow pants and boots and

Marge : Oh yeah That was the worst part

(Tannen, 1994: 70) In the example above, Peg is interrupted by Merge in the middle of discussion. The function of Marge’s interruption is to support Peg’s statement.

b) Assistance

Assistance occurs when the interrupter provides word, phrase or sentence which helps the interruptee to utter his or her idea. The example of this subcategory is shown below.

Dara : It’s like the famous to/

Steph : tongue twister.

(Tannen, 1994: 61) In that example, a pause occurs in Dara’s utterance. She cannot continue her utterance since she forgot about the term of “tongue twister”. Then, Steph assists Dara and help her to finish the utterance.

c) Clarification

This function of interruption is commonly initiated by the listener. In this case, the listener, as the interrupter, interrupts as an attempt to clarify something from the current speaker’s utterances. It also occurs when an interrupter does not get the current speaker’s utterance. One example of this subcategory is shown as follows.

Ross: Dr. Oberman. Okay. And is he/

Susan: she

Ross: /she of course, she/ uh/ familiar with our special situation?

(Xu, 2009:26) In the example above, Ross, as the speaker, is interrupted by Susan in the middle of conversation because Susan wants Ross to clarify her statement before that Dr. Oberman is a woman not a man. The function of this interruption is to have the current speaker to clarify or explain the previous statement that is false or unclear.

6. Gossip Girl TV Series

The object of this research is the first season of Gossip Girl TV series. This TV series is directed by Josh Schwartz and Stephanie Savage. The first season of this TV series was aired from September 19, 2007 until May 19, 2008 with total 18 episodes. This TV series is originally developed from Cecily von Ziegesar’s book

series. Gossip Girl TV series brings a story about Upper East Side people in New York City. The first season of this TV series brings a lot of appreciations from audiences. This TV series won twelve nominations in Teen Choices Award 2008, nominated as Outstanding Achievement in Casting in Artios Award 2008, nominated as Favorite International Program in ASTRA Award 2008, and many others.

The story begins with the return of Serena Van der Woodsen to Manhattan’s Upper East Side society. Serena takes a role as one of the main characters. This TV series follows a plot from the past to the present. The return of Serena is the trigger of mystery and scandal of the story. Serena suddenly returns to the city after she disappears for almost a year. Then, the story continues to reveal what has happened in the past. This sudden return of Serena from her sudden disappearance makes her ex close friend, Blair Waldorf upset and insecure. On the other place, Dan Humphrey has also been waiting for Serena’s return. Dan, in this season, becomes Serena’s boyfriend after several coincidences occur between them.

This TV series, in general, shows the daily life of upper class people in America. Every episode of this TV series shows different themes of upper class events and traditions such as Ivy League party, Thanksgiving party, Cotillion Ball and many others. The stories within are organized naturally like the real life of people in America particularly Upper East Side’s people life. Not only depicting the upper class lifestyle, this TV series also portrays the middle class people who live around the upper class society. The story then illustrates how power and status become important things to rule the society.

B. Previous Research Findings

In analyzing conversation, many researchers were concerned to reveal the conversational strategies that are used by men and women. One of those interesting topics to be analyzed is interruption. This topic is sometimes related to gender issue. Most of the previous studies were concerned to reveal the occurrence of interruption in men’s and women’s language. They have been conducted with different approaches, objects, aims, methods, and results. The two of them along with the results are discussed below.

The first research was conducted by Youqing Xu (2009) which is entitled

Gender Differences in Mixed-Sex Conversations: A Study of Interruptions. This research aimed to reveal the differences and similarities between male and female speakers in mixed-sex conversations with a particular focus on interruption. The primary material of the research was three transcripts of informal and face-to-face conversations that were taken from the famous American TV sitcom Friends. The three transcripts were chosen randomly from season 1, season 5 and season 10. The research was conducted by using a mixed-method qualitative and quantitative.

The result of the research showed that women interrupt more than men. In quantitative result, there were 32 interruptions in the three chosen episodes. From those results, there were 22 interruptions as dominance-related, 8 as rapport-related and only 2 as neutral interruptions. Among all of these interruptions, 12 were initiated by men and 20 by women. In the qualitative result, the researcher concluded that interruptions were used more by women rather than men. Then, the result presented that both women and men use dominance-related and rapport-related

interruptions. This result was contradicted from the assumption that interruption was only used as a way to dominate.

The second research was conducted by Chera Kurnia Larasati (2014) in her thesis entitled A Conversational Analysis of Interruptions in Modern Family Season 1 Series. The aims of the research were to identify and to describe the types and the functions of interruption in Modern Family season 1. The method of the research was descriptive qualitative by using conversational analysis as the approach of the analysis. The result presented that four types of interruption were found in conversations. Those types were simple interruption, overlap, butting-in interruption and silent interruption. In addition, the highest frequency was found in the use of simple interruption, where the lowest occurrence found in the use of butting-in interruption. Besides, this research also studied the three functions of interruption. Those were cooperative, intrusive and neutral. Disagreement as the subtopic of cooperative was found as the most dominant function used among the characters. Meanwhile, clarification as the subtopic of cooperative was used less in the conversations.

Although interruption becomes the main interest of both previous research, this issue is broad and this research analyzes interruption from different perspective from them both. While Youxing’s research focused on analyzing the differences and similarities between men’s and women’s speech particulary in interruption in mixed-sex conversations, this research focuses on analyzing the types and functions of interruption in mixed-sex conversations.

Then, Chera’s research used different approach from this research. Chera used conversational analysis since it analyzed the phenomena within daily conversation where interruption is one of them. In contrast, this research uses Sociolinguistics which focuses on language phenomena in society and interruption is one of the phenomon which occurs in men’s and women’s conversation particularly in mixed-sex conversations. Furthermore, Gossip Girl TV series is used as the object of analysis which is not used by those two previous research. Therefore, by using different objects, approaches, and sources, some research with the same interest, may show different findings.

C. Conceptual Framework and Analytical Construct

This research is conducted by employing Sociolinguistics as the approach of the study. This language field is used to analyze various language phenomena in a society. Those language phenomena are commonly found in conversations. Moreover, conversation depicts how men and women interact in society. The analysis of men’s and women’s language within society is discussed under the subtopic of Sociolinguistics which is language and gender.

In addition, speech differences between men and women are the main discussion in language and gender. The differences are presented in three linguistics structures namely discourse, lexico-grammar and phonology. According to Poynton (1989: 88) there are six differences between men’s and women’s speech in discourse stratum. Those are interruption, switching pause, topic choice, back-channel choice, speech acts choice, and initiating conversation.

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 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 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

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

32 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.

In addition, the source of data of this research was the videos of the first season of Gossip Girl TV series. Episode 5, 6, 7, 9, and 12 were chosen as the samples of the first season in this TV series since the occurrence of interruption is clearly visible in these episodes.

C. Instruments of the Research

This research was basically qualitative. Therefore, the researcher became the key instrument of this research. Croker (in Heigham, 2009: 11) states that in qualitative research, the researcher becomes the primary research instrument as he/she takes a role as the designer, the collector, the analyst, the interpreter, and the reporter of the data. In addition, this research was also supported by the second instrument which was the data sheet. It was employed to note the occurrence of interruption in mixed-sex conversations from the selected episodes of Gossip Girl TV series.

D. Techniques of Data Collection

Vanderstoep and Johnston (2009: 189) state that the data collection techniques in qualitative research include interviewing, ethnographic observation, analysis of documents and material culture, and visual analysis. In this research, the data were collected using the technique of visual analysis. Visual analysis is the interpretation of mediated communication such as films or television programs. Therefore, the data were collected by interpreting the videos and it was supported by considering the contexts shown in the video. In collecting the data, the researcher took the following steps:

1. watching the selected episodes from the first season of Gossip Girl TV series, 2. taking notes of the characters’ utterances from the dialogues of the selected episodes which contained interruption and writing the time of the interruption, and

3. classifying the collected data to the data sheet.

The form of the data sheet is shown below.

Table 1. Sample of Data Sheet of Types and Functions of Interruption in Gossip Girl TV Series

Code Data

Gender

Types of Interruption

Functions of Interruption Explanation

Cooperative Intrusive

M F S O B Si A As C D F Tc T

9/5/00:36:0 1-00:36:05

SERENA: Jenny's not so bad either. DAN: Yeah? SERENA:

Yeah, DAN:

Yeah I-I-I know. I know.

√ √ √ Serena tells Dan that Jenny is a good girl. Then, Dan overlaps Serena because he agrees with Serena’s statement. In that conversation, overlap shows the cooperation of those two speakers. In this case, the type of interruption is overlap which functions as agreement.

Notes: Types Functions

S : Simple Interruption A : Agreement

O : Overlap As : Assistance

B : Butting-in Interruption C : Clarification Si : Silent Interruption D : Disagreement 1/5/00:06:17-00:06:23: number of F : Floor Taking

data/episode/time Tc : Topic Change

E. Techniques of Data Analysis

According to Vanderstoep and Johnston (2009: 191) data analysis should follow after the data are collected and the initial analysis should verify the focus and strategies of the data collection process. Therefore, after the data collection, the process was continued by categorization and analysis.

In this research, the techniques of data analysis were conversation analysis and referential analysis. Conversation analysis was used to help the researcher to interpret the data. Vanderstoep and Johnston (2009: 213) state conversation analysis is used in the interpretation of a naturally occurring conversation. Furthermore, in this research, conversation analysis was used to analyze the types and functions of the utterances in the mixed-sex conversations. In addition, referential analysis was used to analyze the data by referring back to the theory. In analyzing the data, the research took the following steps.

1. The data were classified into the data sheet based on the types and functions of interruption.

2. The types and functions of interruption were described and analyzed by referring to the theories that were presented in the literature review.

3. The data were consulted to the supervisors and linguistics students to check the data trustworthiness.

4. The findings were presented and concluded to answer the questions of the research.

F. Data Trustworthiness

In qualitative research, it is important to prove that the analysis of the research findings is completely correct. To gain trustworthiness of this study, the data were checked against two criteria: validity and reliability.

Reliability, according to Wiersma (1995: 222), is used to check the consistency in the research process. This process, in this research, was conducted by analyzing the collected data by multiple observers. On the other hand, validity was used to check the logical analysis of the data analysis in this research. In qualitative research, the concept of validity and reliability is called as triangulation.

Denzin in Ritchie and Lewis (2003: 275) propose two ways to validate a qualitative research. They are internal and external validation. Internal validation is divided into constant comparative method and deviant case analysis. Meanwhile, external validation is divided into triangulation and member or respondent validation. Due to the limitation of the researcher’s time, this research only employed external validation, i.e. triangulation, to validate the research data.

There are several ways to triangulate the data. One of the ways is triangulation through multiple analysis using different observers, interviewers, or analysts to compare and check data collection and interpretation (Ritchie and Lewis, 2003: 276). In this research, triangulation was done by discussion and consultation to the supervisors and the peer reviewers.

37 CHAPTER IV

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter is concerned with the research results which is divided into two parts namely findings and discussion. It provides the answer of the research objectives that are to identify and to analyze the types and functions of interruption of mixed-sex conversations in Gossip Girl TV series. In the first part, the types and functions of interruption are presented. Then the further explanation and analysis of the types and functions of interruption are presented in the second part.

A. Findings

This part shows the findings of interruption in mixed-sex conversations in

Gossip Girl TV series. The data were taken from spoken utterances by the characters in some selected episodes. There are 65 data in this research. The following table shows the frequency of the occurrences of interruption.

Table 2. Frequency of Occurrence of Types and Functions of Interruption in Gossip Girl TV Series

NO Types of

Interruption Functions Tota l P erc entag e Cooperative Interruption Intrusive Interruption

A As C D F Tc T

1. Simple Interruption - 1 2 1 4 7 4 19 30

2. Overlap

Interruption

8 2 - 5 3 6 9 33 50

3. Butting-in Interruption

- - - - 1 - 1 2 3

4. Silent Interruption - 5 2 1 - - 3 11 17

Total 8 8 4 7 8 13 17 65 100

No. Gender

Type of Interruption Function of Interruption

Total

Percent -age (%)

S O B Si Cooperative Intrusive

A As C D F Tc T

1. Male 12 24 - 6 4 6 1 6 8 10 7 42 64

2. Female 7 9 2 5 4 2 3 1 - 3 10 23 36

Total 19 33 2 11 8 8 4 7 8 13 17 65

Percentage

(%) 30 50 3 17 12 12 6 11 12 20 27 100

Notes:

S : Simple Interruption FT : Floor Taking

O : Overlap T : Tangentialization

B : Butting-in Interruption A : Agreement Si : Silent Interruption As : Assistance

D : Disagreement C : Clarification

Tc : Topic Change

From 65 occurrences, all types of interruption are found in Gossip Girl TV series. There are simple interruption, overlap interruption, butting-in interruption, and silent interruption. It shows that overlap interruption has the highest frequency which appears 33 times (50%). On the other hand, butting-in interruption occurs only twice (3%).

Furthermore, the table above also shows the frequency of the functions of interruption. All functions are found with different frequency of occurrences. The functions of interruption are divided into intrusive and cooperative interruption. Intrusive interruption has four subcategories namely disagreement, floor taking, topic change and tangentialization. On the other hand, cooperative interruption is classified into three subcategories; they are agreement, assistance and clarification. Tangentialization of intrusive interruption becomes the most frequent function of

interruption which appears 17 times (27%). In contrast, clarification of cooperative interruption occurs 4 times (6%) and appears as the lowest frequency in the functions of interruption.

On the other hand, in this research, the use of interruption occurs differently in men’s and women’s speech in the mixed-sex conversations. From the table above, it shows that both male and female characters employ certain types and functions in the use of interruption within mixed-sex conversations. From total 65 data, the male characters use 42 interruption and the female characters use interruption 23 times within their speech. Overlap interruption, as the frequent type, occurs 24 times in male’s speech and only 9 times in female’s speech in the mixed-sex conversations within this TV series. Meanwhile, butting-in interruption do not occur in the male characters’ speech in the mixed-sex conversations and appears twice in the female’s speech.

On the other hand, the male characters of the TV series mostly use interruption which functions as topic change. They rarely use interruption as clarification in which it only occurs once in their speech. On the other hand, the female characters mostly use interruption which functions as tangentialization and do not use interruption as floor taking. Further explanation about the result of this research is presented in the discussion section below.

B. Discussion

1. The Types of Interruption in Mixed-Sex Conversations in Gossip Girl TV Series

All of the types of interruption occur in mixed-sex conversations in Gossip Girl TV series. Those types are simple interruption, overlap interruption, butting-in interruption, and silent interruption. Each of the types is described with some examples below.

a. Simple Interruption

A Simple interruption occurs when an interrupter comes to interrupt a speaker’s turn of speaking which makes the speaker cannot finish her or his utterances. This type of interruption occurs 19 times (30%). An example of a simple interruption is described as follows.

Lily: What he said is that you could come home, not that you should. Eric: But, mom, I thought

Lily: I don't wannaargue about this. I need time to think.

(1/5/00:06:17-00:06:23) In the example above, a simple interruption occurs in the conversation between Lily and Eric. The conversation happens when Eric wants to leave the rehabilitation place, but his mother does not give the permission. In that conversation, Eric tries to defend his argument by saying, “But mom, I thought.” However, Eric gets interrupted by Lily. The interruption makes Eric unable to finish his utterance. In this case, Lily interrupts Eric because she wants to win the conversation over Eric. The interruption occurs when Eric says, “I thought” and immediately Lily comes to grab Eric’s floor before Eric finishes his argument. In that interruption, Eric wants to

show his rejection towards Lily’s order. However, Lily stops Eric’s rejection by immediately says, “I don't wannaargue about this”.

The conversation is considered as a simple interruption because Lily cuts Eric’s turn of speaking which makes Eric unable to finish his utterance. In the example, Lily succeeds in grabbing Eric’s floor by simultaneously talking when Eric is still talking. A simple interruption also occurs in another example below.

Serena : Uh, will you excuse me? I, uh I'm gonna go to the restroom to freshen up a little.

Dan : Yeah, of course, of course. I think the bathrooms are

Serena : Uh, don't worry. I’ll find them.

(3/5/00:11:42-00:11:49)

The conversation above occurs between Serena and Dan when they are having a date in a French restaurant. Dan is being busy to explain the restaurant to Serena. He plans to amaze Serena by arranging a romantic date in an expensive French restaurant. However, Serena feels uncomfortable dating in that place because she knows that Dan spends a lot of money on it. Therefore, Serena makes an excuse for going to the restroom to leave Dan for a while.

In that conversation, the interruption occurs when Dan tries to explain the restroom to Serena and he says, “I think the bathrooms are”. However, Serena wants to stop Dan from talking and she immediately performs interruption by saying, “Uh, don't worry. I’ll find them”. The interruption is considered as a simple interruption because Dan suddenly stops talking and he cannot finish his explanation. In other

words, Serena comes to grab Dan’s floor when Dan is talking. The interruption makes Dan unable to finish his utterance.

A Simple interruption also occurs in the conversation between Dan and Vannesa as shown below.

Vannesa : Here. I wasn't sure what it was till I got it home and saw it on the computer, but

Dan : Okay, that's Chuck.

(56/12/00:13:48-00:13:53)

The conversation above occurs when Vannesa shows a video to Dan. The video is about an evidence of swimming pool incident which shows the suspect of the incident. In the video, Chuck is the suspect of the incident. He tries to hide the swimming pool key which is the prominent evidence of the incident. In that conversation, Vannesa wants to point out that Chuck may be the suspect of the incident, but she fails finishing her utterance. Dan cuts Vannesa’s turn of speaking because he knows the person in the video.

In this case, the type of interruption is regarded as a simple interruption because Dan cuts Vannesa’s turn of speaking. This interruption makes Vannesa unable to finish her explanation completely.

b. Overlap Interruption

Overlap is the most frequent type of interruption which occurs 33 times (50%). This type becomes the most prominent because both men and women want to voice their opinion at the same time. This type occurs when an interrupter grabs the recent speaker’s turn of speaking, but the interruptee finishes his or her utterances

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, it's not a date.

(20/6/00:18:53-00:18:59)

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 another’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 : I'm sorry.

(22/6/00:29:54-00:29:58)

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.

(23/6/00:30:14-00:30:19) 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 it'd be easier on everyone if I took the hit, but they were his.

Anne : I don't understand.

Nate : No. He promised me he'd flush the coke, then I caught him buying more.

(32/7/00:19:53-00:20:03)

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 uttering, “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 she's in your life, you're 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.

(55/9/00:31:13-00:31:23) The conversation above occurs between Alison and Rufus. Alison is Rufus’ 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.

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 it's

perfect.

(37/7/00:34:04-00:34:13) 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, it's about my mom. You know, cause she had this perfume that she always wore. And it was rose and/

Dan : Sandalwood.

(46/9/00:19:34-00:19:39) 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 can't even say it, can you?

(48/9/00:25:42-00:25:50) 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 Rufus’ 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 opportunity 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.

96

Code

Data

Gender

Types of

Interruption

Functions of Interruption

Explanation

Cooperative

Intrusive

M F S O B Si A As C D F Tc T

58/12/00:16:5 3-00:16:59

DAN: Maybe the reason none of you guys take this seriously is because for you it's not.

SERENA: No, it is. Just trust me, hey. DAN: Vanessa, please, some space.

√ √ √ Dan and Serena are having a discussion when Vannesa

immediately comes close to them. In order to prevent Vannesa from hearing the discussion, Dan interrupts Serena for a while. In this case, overlap occurs within the conversation which functions as topic change. The topic change occurs because Dan tries to prevent Vannesa from hearing his discussion with Serena, thus Dan needs to change the topic for a while.

59/12/00:18:2 1-00:18:23

CHUCK: Let you walk out of here with that tape, you're

crazy.

VANNESA: Let go of me.

√ √ √ Overlap occurs in the conversation between Chuck and Vannesa. This type of interruption occurs because Chuck

wants to get Vannesa’s video tape. However, she tries to prevent Chuck from snatching the tape. In that conversation, Vannesa, as the interrupter, employs

tangentialization which intends to grab Chuck’s floor, so

that she can win over the argument.

60/12/00:18:5 5-00:18:59

LILY: Well, I can see that. but five minutes ago, my kids would've

RUFUS: Why did you really come to see me yesterday?

√ √ √ Lily feels surprised at Rufus’ appearance in her house without any notification. However, Rufus immediately interrupts Lily and changes the topic when Lily is still talking. In that case, Rufus, as the interrupter, employs simple interruption which functions as topic change.

97

Code

Data

Gender

Types of

Interruption

Functions of Interruption

Explanation

Cooperative

Intrusive

M F S O B Si A As C D F Tc T

61/12/00:18:5 9-00:19:02

LILY: I told you out of respect for RUFUS: Respect or regret?

√ √ √ Rufus takes Lily’s turn of talking when Lily is still talking.

Here, Rufus wants to clarify that he feels regretful of not showing his real feeling towards Lily. Therefore, a simple interruption occurs since Rufus wants to express his feeling immediately. In this case, the function of interruption is clarification since Rufus interrupts Lily to

clarify Lily’s statement. 62/12/00:19:0

3-00:19:06

RUFUS: You wanted me to give you a reason not to spend the rest of your life with Bart Bass. LILY: Rufus.

√ √ √ Rufus tries to win his argument over Lily. However, in the middle of uttering his statement, he is interrupted by Lily. In that conversation, Rufus can finish his utterance when Lily starts to interrupt him. The type of this interruption is overlap. This overlap occurs because Lily wants to stop Rufus from talking. Thus, Lily, as the interrupter, employs tangentialization.

63/12/00:26:4 8-00/00:26:56

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.

√ √ √ Serena tries to explain his past to Dan. However, Dan does

not want to listen to it any further. In this case, Dan

employs tangentialization since he wants to end Serena’s

explanation. In that conversation, Serena also employs a silent pause which makes Dan performs an interruption.

98

Code

Data

Gender

Types of

Interruption

Functions of Interruption

Explanation

Cooperative

Intrusive

M F S O B Si A As C D F Tc T

64/12/00:28:2 2-00:28:28

NATE: Blair. I know how much your future means to you. And you've worked so hard for Yale and everything BLAIR: What are you talking about?

√ √ √ Nate explains Blair his reason of being a suspect in the swimming pool incident. However, it seems Blair does not

get Nate’s point and then she employs an interruption. In

that conversation, Nate is interrupted by Blair before he can finish his explanation. Thus, simple interruption occurs which functions as clarification to get Nate’s more explanation from his statement.

65/12/00:40:1 0-00:40:14

BART: I can see that Lily and I are gonna have our hands full with the two of you.

SERENA: Will you excuse me? I need some air.

√ √ √ Bart tries to get close to Serena, but Serena feels uncomfortable to talk to him. Therefore, in the middle of talking, Serena interrupts Bart to escape from the discussion. This interruption is categorized as overlap since Bart can finish his utterance though in the same time, Serena starts talking. The interruption contains topic

change since Serena immediately cuts Bart’s floor and

changes the topic to make her escape.