Interruption: Sunday Talk - Before Lunch TimeANA CLAUDIA COMINPATRICIA REGINA VIEIRAUniversidade Federal de Santa Catarina

Florianpolis, December 5, 2014Interruption: Sunday Talk - Before Lunch Time

IntroductionThis paper aims to identify the mechanisms used by high involvement speakers during a conversation. Firstly, the objective was to search for interruptions and overlapping and the reasons of the occurrences based on Tannens article (1994). However, during the analysis we perceived a bigger research field, where this paper could expand to an analysis of Grices maxim (1975) and the speakers strategies to save their faces. Then, this paper seeks to understand the reasons for interruptions and overlaps, the relation between the participants and the mechanisms used by them in a conversation.

Contextualization of the FamilyOur decision (Vieiras and Comins) in record the conversation was to analyze how interruption occur, or if it would happen between family. During a family meeting to Vieiras house, she decided to record the conversation between her familiars. In the conversation appears Vieiras mother, who is 50 years old, her aunt Nice, who is 48 years old, her uncle, Nices husband, and her Grandmother, who is 78 years old. It is important to highlight that Vieiras Grandmother is Nices mother and Ninas mother-in-law. The record took more than 11 minutes; it was transcript by us, and only some samples were separate to be used in this paper, though.

Interruption Tannen (1994), in her article, brings many definition of what interruption is, from vary researchers; one that gives a clear understanding is from Zimmerman and West (1975), followed by Scheglooff (1987). Based on them, interruption is: A violation of the turn exchange system and an overlap as a misfire in it. If a second speaker begins speaking at what could be a transition-relevance place, it is counted as an overlap. The assumption is that the speaker mistook the potential transition-relevance place for an actual one. If a second speaker begins speaking at what could not be a transition-relevance place, it is counted as interruption (1994, pp 57)

Analyze an interruption and claim it as an interruption, however, demands an interpretive act more than descriptive one. And to be able to identify an overlap, it is need two people talking at the same time.In the first sample, Grandma is talking about one day that she and her son Jair went to Nices house and they decided to go back home.

Sample 1

Tia Ai tinha combinado que o Jair ia levar ele l em casa e o carro dele ia ficar l em casa... t, aceitou. Daqui q pouco a comeou a tomar gua, parou, comeou a tomar gua, tomou gua, sentou e comeou a conversar, conversar, aah vamo emboraV Ai o Jair assim: mano eu vou na frente, tu vai atrs de mim, qualquer coisa tu d sinal. Ai t Nina iiiVA fomos at na casa daNinaO Pati vai l d uma xcara de caf pro SamuelNice o Z cafV Ai fomo.. ai chegue... fomo at a casa dele... Cheguemos l ele entrou, ai eu ia e Jair viemo simbora, cheguemo em casa duas horas da manh.

Here in this sample, it is possible to perceive that Nina thinks that offering coffee to Samuel is more important in that moment than listen to Grandmas story, since Samuel is a guest, and it is a social convention offer something to drink or eat. And Grandma share the same social convention as Nina, due to the fact that she stops what she is saying and continues the story after Nina offered the coffee.

Fight for the FloorIna conversation, for interruption to occur two people must be speaking and it will be an interruption only if one speaker stops talking and gives space for the other one to speak. Behind this interruption there might be the assumption for dominance, since there is a fight for the floor in a conversation. But also, this interruption may vary according to cultural, to individual predisposition and with the context of interaction. In the samples that will be present, it seems to be case of dominance. In the following example Nice is telling to Nina, about her trip to a Hotel in Palmas. Grandma, however, starts talking about Andreias Christmas party, interrupting Nice. Nice just asks whose party her mother is talking and returns to tell the story to Nina.

Sample 2

Nice Muito bom hotel guria. Meu deus do cuNina Onde que ? Nice L em Palmas. Samos tudo cedo... Ahhh... Chegue... V Da, da, da Nice, da... da coisa vai ser sbado NiceDe quem?V Da, da, da onde a Andreia trabalha... No seiNice Ahhh, a festa de natalV No sei se eles. No sei se l Nice O gerente se vestiu de Papai NoelV SeNice e, e a todo mundo ganhou chocolate, uma coisa assim.... uma caixa de bom bom... l eles do umas

coisas assimV Se eles me convidar eu vouNicePra no, pra no se... ele disse que no queria nada de...e.... ningum melhor que ningum... da um dava um presente to bom, a o outro no tinha condio... foi tudo assim

In sample 2, Grandma and Nice are always fighting for the floor. It seems that Grandma wants attention in the conversation and brings a different topic to the conversation. Nice, by the other hand, just make a question to her mother about the party, and return to the previous topic. Even though Grandma insists to bring the different topic, interrupting her daughter again, this time is given no attention to her.The next sample, Nice is telling Nina about her sons First Holy Communion. She tells that there were a photographer who took a lot of photos, but she did not put any of the photos in the social network called Facebook.

Sample3

Nice Mas eu no botei nenhuma foto no Face.Nina Por que?NicePorque ele pediu pra no botarNina Aaah no acredito...V o que?Nina Por que?Nice Por causa da Mama delePati Quem pediu pra no botar?Nice O Gustavo. Porque ele no convidou a Mama. Por causa daNina Quem Mama?Nice A Francine [impossible to transcribe]Nina o que que tem?Nice Mas assim n filha, a temNina Eles no falam?Nice No, acho que no. A eu disse: meu filho, ento a gente nem vai convidar pra no dar, assim.... porque.. pra ningum ficar falando n... Ento no pem no Face, eu disseNina Ahhh que malNice Mas no, eu bati um monte de foto dele, um monte. Agora essa semana vou l no fotografo pegar, o fotgrafo fico.. o fotografo bateu todas as fotos dele.V Ele gosta dela n?Nice Ele gosta delaNina Aaah e porque que no convidou, guria? Nice Ahh no convidei pra no, no, no d intriga. Mas nem comenta nada l com ningum no t me.Camila Oh meV Aah vou

Here in this sample, Nina interrupts Nice many times, however, it is not an interruption itself, but a supportive overlap. In other words, she continues to make questions to make the topic very clear and understand the reason behind Nices choice to not put any photo on Facebook, but also to encourage Nice to continuing to tell the story.

Grices maximsIn many moments, the interrupter violates the Grices maxims breaking the flow not only occasioned by the interruption itself, but also because the interrupter introduces a new subject to the conversation, which is not related to the previous subject. Grice created four maxims, which could be consider as rules of thumb in a conversation, they are[footnoteRef:1]: [1: From GRICE. Logic and Conversation, pp. 41-58]

1. The maxim of quantity: Make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange). Do not make your contribution more informative than it is required2. The maxim of quality: Do not say what you believe to be false. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.3. The maxim of relation: Be relevant4. The maxim of manner: Avoid obscurity of expression. Avoid ambiguity. Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity). Be orderly.

In the sample 2, the participants Nice and Nina are talking about Nices trip, and Grandma interrupts Nice to talk about Andreias Christmas party. In the conversation Grandma violates two maxims:1) The maxim of relation, because she started talking about an irrelevant subject to the conversation:

Nice L em Palmas. Samos tudo cedo... Ahhh... Chegue... V Da, da, da Nice, da... da coisa vai ser sbado 2) The maxim of manner because she was not being clear about her subject, the other participants were not aware of what Grandma, until the moment when Nice asked about whom she was talking about:NiceDe quem?V Da, da, da onde a Andreia trabalha... No seiNice Ahhh, a festa de natal

By violating these two maxims, Grandma broke with the whole conversation, and as she was not being clear about the topic, Nice excluded Grandma from the conversation, taking the floor back.

Saving the faceDuring the analysis, another issue found in one part of the conversation is how the participants try to save their faces. In the sample 3, the participants (Nice, Nina, Grandma, and Pati) were talking about Gustavos (Nices son) First Holy Communion and the fact that he didnt want to put the photos in the Facebook because Francine would see them, and as she was not invited, it could create an awkward situation. When Nice and Grandma starts talking about Francine, it is noticeable their intention to save their faces. The act of protection, Preti explain as a mechanism to speakers look better and preserve the social image:During a performance, speakers try to appear to their interlocutors a little better than they really are and take care to preserve their social image, so that a discourse from off-stage does not suddenly interfere with their performance, causing them to lose the credibility of their listeners. (1996, p. 196)

In the sample, Nice seemed bothered with the fact that Gustavo didnt want to put the photos in the Facebook. The choice of saying: por causa da Mama dele instead of saying por causa da Francine shows that Nice dislikes Francine and got really unhappy with the whole situation. However, she doesnt assume her feelings about it; she tries to explain the reason that Francine was not invited was to avoid problems with other people: ento a gente nem vai convidar pra no dar, assim porque pra ningum ficar falando n Nice didnt want to portray an image of a bad person, so she saved her face saying that the best thing to do to avoid problems was not invite Francine.To reinforce her image of a better person, Nice asked to her mother dont tell about their talk with anyone: mas nem comenta nada l com ningum no t me, and her mother, also saving her face agreed ironically: Aah vou. If Grandma had told someone about this episode, she would make Nice lose her social image, and even her selfs face because she would portray an image of gossiper.

ConclusionThe results of the analysis presented a high connection between the participants, because they didnt got offended by the overlaps and interruptions, and also presented Nices and Grandma concerning in saving their faces and in dominate the conversation. There were supportive overlapping situations: Ninas questions to enhance the topic; overlap because of priorities of subject (Ninas offering food), but it appeared much more interruptions situations, especially among Nice and her mother, who during the whole conversation fought to take the floor. This fight for the floor broke the flow and made the conversation non-sense. Grandma is one of the reasons to the conversation became unclear, many times she violates the Grices maxim interrupting the flow with irrelevant topics. We cannot ignore that her violations may be connected with her age, and for being old, she is not taken serious in the conversation and ends up being excluded from the conversation.

References:Grice, H.P. (1975) Logic and Conversation. Syntax and Semantics 3: Speech arts, Cole et al. (pp. 41-58)Dino, P. (1996). Problems with the representation of face and its manifestations in the discourse of the old-old. Texts and Practices: Reading in Critical Discourses Analysis. (pp.194-214)Tannen, D. (1994). Interpreting Interruption in Conversation. Gender & Discourse, New York, NY: Oxford University Press, Inc. (pp.53-83)