CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of Study
The turn-taking event often happens to the speaker when delivering an
utterance spontaneously and sometimes intentionally. This turn-taking is called
as an interruption. The writer interested in analyzing interruptions because the
writer really wanted to discuss further about the interruptions that happens in
conversation spontaneously and sometimes intentionally. Those interruptions are
signs of dominance that become an assumption in research as in conversation
wisdom (Deborah Tannen, 1993: 175). Interruptions during an interview often
occur, because the hearer does not want to wait when the speaker gives the
hearer a turn to speak. This interview is intentionally done by the interviewer
towards someone, who is required by the interviewer to ask for information and
opinions about a problem or an issue which is being discussed and known by the
people in that moment.
Picture 1.1. Larry King as host on Larry King Now
In a conversation on television show such as talk show, conversations
will run by turns and have been prepared in the form of a script. The script is
only the form of points which is to be filed, along passage of the show and the
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conversation will form the system when the speaker provides question and the
hearer will respond the question. One of the famous presenters who host a talk
show is Larry King. He is known as one of the live broadcast interviewers in US.
King ever won an Emmy Award, 2 Peabody Awards and 10 Cable Ace
Awards (www.thefamouspeople.com). In his talk show, he interviews
celebrities, politicians and businessmen. Larry King hosts the talk shows
formally with no audience in his show and it is a thing that makes this talk show
different from other talk show. It makes the topic look important to be discussed
seriously with no interference on the part of the audience. That the reasons why
the writer chooses Larry King Now talk show.
Picture 1.2. Steven Yeun & Lauren Cohan
The writer has found the object of this research which is using Talk
Show on “Larry King Now” under the title, The Walking Dead: Steven Yeun &
Lauren Cohan "Larry King Now". This talk show draws the attention to the
interruption in interview conversation between Larry King and the guest stars.
This episode is on October 22, 2013. The interviewees are Steven Yeun as Glenn
Rhee and Lauren Cohan as Maggie Greene, the characters of The Walking Dead
Tv Series on AMC Channel.
This interview focused on topic discussed in this episode. The Walking
Dead's Steven Yeun and Lauren Cohan had a discussion with Larry King about
the potential fate of their favorite characters, Glenn and Maggie. Also, they
discussed Glenn and Maggie’s roles as a couple about their relationship and how
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they and other friends would have to survive from the walkers or zombies in The
Walking Dead TV Series on the next serious 4 season.
The writer chose this media because there were many interruptions found
in the interviews, therefore it was interesting to be researched. Interruption
becomes the central topic of the writer's research. To research this thesis, the
writer chose the interruption theory from James and Clarke (1993) in Tannen
(1993: 231). The reason is that there is a scientific explanation of the
interruptions in their theory which is divided into three functions to explain the
function of what is being done by the hearer so the hearer did an interruption.
The three functions of interruption are supportive function, neutral function, and
disruptive function.
The writer prefers the interruption theory to examine some of the
functions contained in the discussion in order to prove the existing data and refer
to the interruption function theory by James and Clarke (1993) in Tannen (1993:
231). The writer also chose a theory for the reason of interruption from
Wardhaugh (1985), because the writer analyzes the reason of the hearer in
interrupting. The reasons of interruption are to correct the utterance, to show an
agreement or a disagreement, to clarify, and change the topic. Based on the
explanation above, the writer is interested in doing research on titled
"Interruption in the Interview between Larry King and the Stars of The
Walking Dead Tv Series on Larry King Now Talk Show: a Conversation
Analysis".
1.2 Problem Formulation
Based on the explanation that has been explained in the background of study,
the writer formulates the problem as follows:
1. What are the functions of the interruptions used in conversations between
Larry King and the Stars of The Walking Dead Tv Series on Larry King Now?
2. What are the reasons of the interruptions used in conversations between Larry
King and the Stars of The Walking Dead Tv Series on Larry King Now?
3. Do the reasons of the support the functions or do the functions support the
reasons of the interruptions?
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1.3 Scope and Limitation
The writer wants to analyze about the use the functions of interruptions
and the reasons of interruptions in conversations between Larry King and the
Stars of The Walking Dead. The research only covers the interviews between
Larry King and the stars of The Walking Dead: Steven Yeun and Lauren Cohan
on Larry King Now. The data of the research focus on the turn-takings in the
interactions between Larry King with Steven Yeun and Lauren Cohan which
happen at the same time and which show interruptions in their conversations.
1.4 Goals and Functions
The writer composes goals in order to get a response and information which
can prove and answer the problem of this research. The goals are:
1. To describe the functions of interruptions in the conversations between Larry
King and the stars of The Walking Dead Tv Series on Larry King Now.
2. To describe the reasons of interruptions in the conversations between Larry
King and the stars of The Walking Dead Tv Series on Larry King Now.
3. To see whether in these conversations the reasons of the interruptions support
the functions of the interruption or the functions support the reasons
1.5 Previous Study
Before the writer did this research, she analyzed the previous research
which had the nearly same topic to understand more about the topic clearly. It
also helped the writer to give the model for her own research. The writer gets the
idea to do this research from the two previous theses that have been done before
by Syahid Gufron and Marcelin Alilyena Silalebit who analyzed about
interruption usage in conversations on fellowship meeting and talk show.
Certainly, they had a different way to analyze the interruptions.
The first thesis is written by Syahid Gufron from Padjajaran University,
Bandung in 2011, entitled "The Interruptions and Power between Oprah
Winfrey and the Jackson family in the Oprah Winfrey Show: Analysis of
conversation". Gufron, in his thesis, analyzed the function of interruption that
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happened between Oprah Winfrey conversations with Jackson family is.
Furthermore, he analyzes what the reason of interruption is and analyzes power
shown by Oprah Winfrey. Gufron used the qualitative and library research. The
theory used by Gufron is the theory of interruption functions from James and
Clarke (1993) in Tannen (1994: 238). Syahid also used a theory about the
reasons of interruption from Wardhaugh (1985), and the theory of power from
Fairclough (1989). The difference between Syahid's research and the writer's
research is the writer did not analyze the power, because there was an
interruption in the power itself, so the writer simply analyzed the functions and
reason of interruption which were performed by the participants.
Secondly, the thesis which becomes a reference for the writer's research
is written by Marcelin Alilyena Silalebit from Petra Christian University,
Surabaya in 2013, with a thesis entitled "Interruptions produced by the
Moluccan students in the fellowship meeting". The object of Silalebit’s research
is the conversations taken from a meeting by 15 students from Maluku as
respondents and divides it into two groups: the chairman and members. In this
research Silalebit used qualitative research. For the data, Silalebit recorded the
meeting once, Silalebit watched the recording in order to understand the plot of
the meeting, next she transcribes the dialogue lines then, Silalebit gave the
numbering system of the data since she would differentiate the interruption
spoken by the chair person and the members. The theory used bySilalebitis the
theory of interruption proposed by Tannen (1990) and Wardhaugh (1985), and
supported by the theory of discourse markers by Schiffrin (2003) and social role
by Johnstone (2008). The difference between Silalebit's research and the writer's
research is the writer does not analyze about discourse markers and social role.
Meanwhile, the writer uses the research in the form of a conversation
between Larry King and the Stars of The Walking Dead Tv Series on Larry King
Now Talk Show by analyzing the function of interruption uses the theory of
James and Clarke (1993) in Tannen (1994: 231), and the theory of interruption
reason from Wardhaugh (1985). For doing this research, the writer used the
qualitative and library research.
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