A Multimodal Interaction Study Of Interruption In Natural Conversation

Based on the corpus of natural conversation,this paper adopts interactive linguistics method to observe and analyze the multimodal interaction of interruption phenomenon among young women of the same age in Chinese conversation.On the basis of previous research,this paper divides interruptions into non-cooperative interruptions and cooperative interruptions based on the actual corpus.Since cooperative interruptions are more common,this paper further divides cooperative interruptions into correction,inquiry,verification and topic promotion.Research has found that in addition to using syntactic means,which are the most conventional resources,other resources such as eyes,gestures,and body movements also play a very important auxiliary role in the process of interruption in Chinese conversation,making interruption exhibit a multimodal interactive feature.Overall,there is a certain relationship between the use of multimodal resources and the type,location,and outcome of interruptions:(1)In different types of interruption,eyes play an important role.The gaze in the eyes often indicates the snatch of the conversation round or the cooperative assistance to the conversation,while the dissociation of the eyes often indicates the resistance to the current topic.(2)Most non-cooperative interruptions occur inside the TCU,and the more overlapping words the non-cooperative interruptions occur at the end of the turn,the richer multimodal resources will be used.Most cooperative interruptions also occur in TCU,and syntax,eyes and posture are often used frequently.(3)The interruption result is related to the multimodal use of the interrupter and the interrupted,so when exploring the multimodal use rule of the interruption result,we should start from the two perspectives of the interrupter and the interrupted.For the interrupter,the stare in the eyes,the repetition of syntax and the use of interrogative sentence patterns are helpful to the success of the interruption.When the interruption fails,the multimodal resources of the interrupter often involve gestures and eyes.For the interrupted person,when the successful interruption occurs,the interrupted person often involves the gaze of the eyes and the rest of the hands.When a failed interruption occurs,the interrupted person often does not stare at the interrupted person,and the hand movement does not stop.