An Analysis of Interruptive Overlapping Utterances in Relation to Turn-Holding and Turn-Seizing

Abstract

This study analyzes who retains the speaking turn after an interruptive overlapping utterance occurs within a speaker's turn-constructional unit. The analysis is based on the Chiba University Three-Person Corpus, examining two sets of conversations (each involving three female speakers and three male speakers) totaling approximately 20 minutes. The results of the analysis identified the following four patterns:(1) If the interrupted speaker continues speaking, they retain the speaking turn.(2) If the interrupted speaker stops speaking, the speaking turn shifts to the interrupter.(3) Even if the interrupted speaker continues speaking, if a third party responds to the interrupting utterance, the speaking turn shifts to the interrupter.(4) If both the interrupted speaker and the interrupter continue speaking, the interrupted speaker may respond to the interrupter, and the interrupter may respond to the interrupted speaker, leading to a situation where two speaking turns run in parallel.