A Pragmatic Study On Interruption Of Rural Elderly

Based on the daily conversation of the elderly from a village in Yancheng,Jiangsu as data,this paper uses the method of conversation analysis to investigate the common types of interruption of the rural elderly,and discusses the main factors affecting their interruption.First,10 healthy rural elderly are randomly selected for research.The total effective duration of the obtained data is 13 hours,16 minutes and 14 seconds,and 213 cases of interruption of the elderly are identified.Second,this paper revises the interruption mode proposed by Li and Shen(2003),and on this basis,makes a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the categories of interruption in conversations of the rural elderly.Finally,according to the data statistics,combined with the corresponding case analysis,the present study sums up three factors affecting the rural elderly’s interruption.It is found that firstly,the interruption categories of the rural elderly are mainly manifested as successful interruptions(40.8%),unsuccessful interruptions(42.3%)and a small amount of semi-successful interruptions(16.9%).Among them,successful interruptions and unsuccessful interruptions are mainly concentrated on successful single interruptions(33.8%)and unsuccessful single interruptions(41.3%);only some interjections(16.9%)occur among semi-successful interruptions.Therefore,it can be assumed that the interruption of the rural elderly is generally characterized by the pattern of single interruptions.Secondly,the macro factors in social variables,namely age,and gender,as well as the micro factor of interpersonal distance,close or distant,influence the interruption of rural elderly.First of all,in terms of age,the rural elderly usually interrupt middle-aged and elderly groups.They interrupt the elderly the most,while interrupting the young the least.From the perspective of the category of interruption,when communicating with the elderly group,the elderly have the most successful interruptions;however,when communicating with the middle-aged group,the elderly’s interruptions are often unsuccessful.Second,compared with elderly men,elderly women are more likely to interrupt the other party,especially when the other party is also an elderly woman.As to the category of interruption,elderly women are more likely to implement successful interruptions than elderly men,thus effectively controlling the right to speak.Third,interpersonal distance affects the interruption of the rural elderly.Interruptions are mostly distributed in people with close distance,especially in conversations with family members,in which there are plenty of unsuccessful interruptions,indicating that the status of rural elderly is gradually declining in the family,resulting in their discourse power also constantly weakened in daily life.But such disadvantage is not obviously reflected between friends.The elderly tend to implement successful interruptions when interacting with their friends.By focusing on the rural elderly and analyzing the micro-linguistic phenomenon of interruption,we can understand the pragmatic features and language needs of the elderly in the rural area,thus enriching the study of gerontolinguistics and improving the quality of the elderly’s language life.