When a group of friends are having a conversation together, it is not unusual to find that two or more interlocutors are talking at the same time. Simultaneous speech or overlapping talk occurs not infrequently in casual conversations between social equals, especially between friends. Scholarly interest in the phenomenon of conversational overlap dates back to as early as the 1950s, when psychologists, particularly psychopathologists began to shift their attention from the individual to the interpersonal context, with a focus on interaction processes (Jacob 1975). Since then, researchers have tried to determine its conversational functions as well as its dispositional and social meanings. But different researchers have used the term differently with a different coverage and a different classification system. The indexical meanings of overlap have also been exploited for the examination of personality, gender and cultural differences. In this paper, overlap is used as synonymous with simultaneous speech, referring simply to the co-occurrence of two or more speakers’ utterances in a conversation.

References

Anderson, K.J. & C. Leaper

1998 Meta-analysis of gender effects on conversational interruptions: Who, what, when, where, and how. Sex Roles 39(3/4): 225–252.

Aries, E

1996 Men and women in interaction: Reconsidering the difference. New York: Oxford University Press.

Aries, E., C. Gold & R.H. Weigel

1983 Dispositional and situational influence on dominance behavior in small groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 44: 779–786.

Bales, R.F

1950 Interaction process analysis: A method for the study of small groups. Addison-Wesley.

Beattie, G.W

1981 Interruption in conversational interaction and its relation to the sex and status of the interactants. Linguistics 19: 15–35.

Beattie, G.W

1983 Talk: An analysis of speech and non-verbal behaviour in conversation. Open University Press.

Becker, J. & E. Iwakami

1969 Conflict and dominance within families of disturbed children. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 74: 330–335.

Bennett, A

1981 Interruptions and the interpretation of conversation. Discourse Processes 4: 171–188.  BoP

Berry, A

1994 Spanish and American turn-taking styles: A comparative study. Pragmatic and Language Learning Monograph Series 5: 180–190.

Bilmes, J

1997 Being interrupted. Language in Society 26: 507–531.  BoP

Bull, P. & K. Mayer

1988 Interruptions in political interviews: A study of Margaret Thatcher and Neil Kinnock. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 7: 35–45.  BoP

Coates, J

1994 No gap, lots of overlap: Turn-taking patterns in the talk of women friends. In D. Graddol, J. Maybin & B. Stierer (eds.), Researching language and literacy in social context: 177–192. Multilingual Matters.

Coates, J

1996 Women talk: Conversation between women friends. Blackwell.  BoP

Courtright, J.A., F.E. Millar & L.E. Rogers-Millar

1979 Domineeringness and dominance: Replication and expansion. Communication Monographs 46: 179–197.

Cromdal, J

2001 Overlap in bilingual play: Some implications of code-switching for overlap resolution. Research on Language and Social Interaction 34(4): 421–451.  BoP

Deng, X

1998 Overlapping in Australian and Chinese conversations. Proceedings of the Australian Linguistic Society Conference July 1998 . University of Queensland, Brisbane: Australian Linguistic Society. Retrieved May 13, 2008, from http://​emsah​.uq​.edu​.au​/linguistics​/als​/als98​/dengx357​.html

Deng, X

1999 Chinese and Australian conversational styles: A comparative sociolinguistic study of overlap and listener response. Unpublished PhD thesis, Perth, Australia, Edith Cowan University.

Drass, K.A

1986 The effect of gender identity on conversation. Social Psychology Quarterly 49(4): 294–301.

Dunne, M. & S.H. Ng

1994 Simultaneous speech in small group conversation: All-together-now and one-at-a-time? Journal of Language and Social Psychology 13(1): 45–71.  BoP

Farina, A

1960 Patterns of role dominance and conflict in parents of schizophrenic patients. Journal of Abnormal Social Psychology 61: 31–38.

Farina, A. & J. Holzberg

1968 Interaction patterns of parents and hospitalized sons diagnosed as schizophrenic or nonschizophrenic. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 73: 114–118.

Ferreira, A., W. Winter & E. Poindexter

1966 Some interactional variables in normal and abnormal families. Family Process 5: 60–75.

Ferguson, N

1977 Simultaneous speech, interruptions and dominance. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 16: 295–302.

Fontana, A

1966 Familiar etiology of schizophrenia: Is a scientific methodology possible? Psychological Bulletin 66: 214-227.

French, P. & J.K. Local

1983 Turn-competitive incomings. Journal of Pragmatics 7: 17–38.  BoP

Goldberg, J.A

1990 Interrupting the discourse on interruptions. Journal of Pragmatics 14: 883–903.

Guillot, M

2005 Revisiting the methodological debate on interruptions: From measurement to classification in the annotation of data for cross-cultural research. Pragmatics 15(1): 25–47.  BoP

Halmari, H

1993 Intercultural business telephone conversations: A case of Finns vs. Anglo-Americans. Applied Linguistics 14(4): 408–430.  BoP

Hawkins, K

1988 Interruptions in task-oriented conversations: Effects of violations by males and females. Women’s Studies in Communication 11: 1–20.

Hawkins, K

1991 Some consequences of deep interruption in task-oriented communication. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 10(3): 185–203.  BoP

Hetherington, E.M., R.J. Strouwie & E.H. Ridberg

1971 Patterns of family interaction and child-rearing attitudes related to three dimensions of juvenile delinquency. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 78: 160–176.

Holmes, J

1991 State of the art: Language and gender. Language Teaching 24(4): 207–220.

Holmes, J

1992 An introduction to sociolinguistics. Longman.  BoP

Holmes, J

1995 Women men and politeness. Longman.  BoP

Jacob, T

1975 Family interaction in disturbed and normal families: A methodological and substantive review. Psychological Bulletin 82: 33–65.

James, D. & S. Clarke

1993 Women, men, and interruptions: A critical review. In D. Tannen (ed.) Gender and social interaction: 231–280. Oxford University Press.

Jefferson, G

(n.d.). On a failed hypothesis: ‘Conjunctionals’ as overlap-vulnerable. Unpublished manuscripts.

Jefferson, G

1973 A case of precision timing in ordinary conversation. Semiotica 9: 47–96.  BoP

Jefferson, G

1983 Two explorations of the organization of overlapping talk in conversation: Notes on some orderlinesses of overlap onset. Tilburg Papers in Language and Literature 28.

Jefferson, G

1986 Notes on ‘latency’ in overlap onset. Human Studies 9: 153–83.

Jefferson, G. & E.A. Schegloff

1975 Sketch: Some orderly aspects of overlap in natural conversation. Paper delivered to the 74th Annual Meetings of the American Anthropological Association San Francisco.

Jones, D

1980 Gossip: Notes on women’s oral culture. In C. Kramarae (ed.), The Voices and words of women and men: 193–198. Pergamon.

Kalcik, S

1975 ‘…like Ann’s gynaecologist or the time I was almost raped’ – personal narratives in women’s rap groups. Journal of American Folklore 88: 3–11.

Kennedy, C.W. & C.T. Camden

1983 A new look at interruptions. Western Journal of Speech Communication 47: 45–58.

Kollock, P., P. Blumstein & P. Schwartz

1985 Sex and Power in interaction: Conversational privileges and duties. American Sociological Review 50: 34–46.

Lafrance, M

1992 Gender and Interruptions: Individual infraction or violation of the social order? Psychology of Women Quarterly 16: 497-512.

Lehtonen, J. & K. Sajavaara

1985 The silent Finn. In D. Tannen & M. Saville-Troike (eds.), Perspective on Silence: 193–201. Ablex.

Leffler, A., D.L. Gillespie & J.C. Conaty

1982 The effects of status differentiation on nonverbal behaviour. Social Psychology Quarterly 45(3): 153–61.

Leighton, L.L., G.E. Stollack & L.R. Ferguson

1971 Patterns of communication in normal and clinic families. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 36: 252–256.

Lerner, G.H

1991 On the syntax of sentences-in-progress. Language in Society 20(3): 441–458.

Lerner, G.H

1996 On the “semi-permeable” character of grammatical units in conversation: Conditional entry into the turn space of another speaker. In E. Ochs, E.A. Schegloff & S.A. Thompson (eds.), Interaction and grammar: 238-276. Cambridge University Press.

Li, H.Z

2001 Cooperative and intrusive interruptions in inter- and intracultural dyadic discourse. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 20(3): 259–284.

Li, H.Z., M. Krysko, N.G. Desroches & G. Deagle

2004 Reconceptualizing interruptions in physician-patient interviews: Cooperative and intrusive. Communication & Medicine 1(2): 145–157.  BoP

Makri-Tsilipakou, M

1994 Interruption revisited: Affiliative vs. disaffiliative intervention. Journal of Pragmatics 21: 401–426.  BoP

Marche, T.A. & C. Peterson

1993 On the gender differential use of listener responsiveness. Sex Roles 29(11/12): 795–816.

Meltzer, L., W.N. Morris & D.P. Hayes

1971 Interruption outcomes and vocal amplitude: Explorations in social psychophysics. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 18: 392–402.

Mishler, E.G. & N.E. Waxler

1968 Interaction in families: An experimental study of family process and schizophrenia. New York: Wiley.

Murata, K

1994 Intrusive or co-operative? A cross-cultural study of interruption. Journal of Pragmatics 21: 385–400.  BoP

Murray, S.O

1985 Toward a model of members’ methods for recognizing interruptions. Language in Society 14: 31–40.

Murray, S.O

1987 Power and solidarity in “Interruption”: A critique of the Santa Barbara School conception and its application by Orcutt and Harvey 1985. Symbolic Interaction 10(1): 101-110.

Murray, S.O. & L.H. Covelli

1988 Women and men speaking at the same time. Journal of Pragmatics 12: 103–111.

Natalé, M., E. Entin & J. Jaffe

1979 Vocal interruptions in dyadic communication as a function of speech and social anxiety. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 37: 865–878.

Ng, S.H., M. Brooke & M. Dunne

1995 Interruption and influence in discourse groups. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 14(4): 369–381.  BoP

Nohara, M

1992 Sex differences in interruption: An experimental reevaluation. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 21(2): 127–146.  BoP

Nordenstam, K

1992 Male and female conversational style. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 94: 75–98.

O’connor, W. & J. Stachowiak

1971 Patterns of interaction in families with high adjusted low adjusted, and mentally retarded members. Family Process 10: 229–241.

Okamoto, D.G., L.S. Rashotte & L. Smith-Lovin

2002 Measuring interruption: Syntactic and contextual methods of coding convention. Social Psychology Quarterly 65(1): 38–55.

O’reilly, M

2006 Should children be seen and not heard? An examination of how children’s interruptions are treated in family therapy. Discourse Studies 8(4): 549–566.  BoP

Philips, S.U

1976 Some sources of cultural variability in the regulation of talk. Language in Society 5: 81–95.

Reisman, K

1974 Contrapuntal conversations in an Antiguan village. In R. Bauman & J. Sherzer (eds.), Explorations in the ethnography of speaking: 110–124. Cambridge University Press.  BoP

Riskin, J. & E.E. Faunce

1972 An evaluative review of family interaction research. Family Process 11: 365–456.

Roger, D

1989 Experimental studies of dyadic turn-taking behaviour. In D. Roger & P. Bull (eds.), Conversation: 75–95. Multilingual Matters.  BoP

Roger, D., P. Bull & S. Smith

1988 The development of a comprehensive system for classifying interruptions. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 7: 27–34.  BoP

Roger, D. & W. Nesshoever

1987 Individual differences in dyadic conversational strategies: A further study. British Journal of Social Psychology 26: 247–255.

Roger, D.B. & A. Schumacher

1983 Effects of individual differences on dyadic conversational strategies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 45(3): 700–705.

Rogers, W.T. & S.E. Jones

1975 Effects of dominance tendencies on floor holding and interruption behaviour in dyadic interaction. Human Communication Research 1: 113–122.

Sacks, H

1992 Lectures on conversation. Blackwell.  BoP

Schegloff, E.A

1987 Recycled turn beginnings. In G. Button & J.R.E. Lee (eds.), Talk and social organization: 70–85. Multilingual Matters.

Sacks, H., E.A. Schegloff & G. Jefferson

1974 A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language 50: 696–735.  BoP

Saslow, G., J.D. Matarazzo, J.S. Phillips & R.G. Matarazzo

1957 Test-retest stability of interaction patterns during interviews conducted one week apart. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 54: 295–302.

Schegloff, E.A

2000 Overlapping talk and the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language in Society 29: 1–63.  BoP

Shaw, M.E. & O.W. Sadler

1965 Interaction patterns in heterosexual dyads varying in degrees of intimacy. The Journal of Social Psychology 66: 345–351.

Sidnell, J

2001 Conversational turn-taking in a Caribbean English Creole. Journal of Pragmatics 33: 1263–1290.  BoP

Smeltzer, L.R. & K.W. Watson

1986 Gender differences in verbal communication during negotiations. Communication Research Reports 3: 74–79.

Smith-Lovin, L. & C. Brody

1989 Interruptions in group discussions: The effects of gender and group composition. American Sociological Review 54: 424–435.

Smythe, M. & B. Huddleston

1992 Competition and collaboration: Male and female communication patterns during dyadic interactions. In L.A.M. Perry, L.H. Turner & H.M. Sterk (eds.), Constructing and reconstructing gender: The links among communication, language, and gender: 251-260. State University of New York Press.

Stabenau, J., J. Turpin, M. Werner & W. Pollin

1965 A comparative study of families of schizophrenics delinquents, and normals. Psychiatry 28: 45–59.

Stubbe, M

1998 Are you listening? Cultural influences on the use of supportive verbal feedback in conversation. Journal of Pragmatics 29: 257–289.  BoP

Talbot, M

1992 ‘I wish you’d stop interrupting me!’: Interruptions and asymmetries in speaker-rights in equal encounters. Journal of Pragmatics 18: 451–466.  BoP

Tannen, D

1984 Conversational style: Analyzing talk among friends. Norwood: Ablex.  BoP

Tannen, D

1994 Gender and discourse. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press.  BoP

Testa, R

1988 Interruptive strategies in English and Italian conversation: Smooth versus contrastive linguistic preferences. Multilingua 7(3): 285–312.

Ulijn, J.M. & X. Li

1995 Is interrupting impolite? Some temporal aspects of turn-taking in Chinese-Western and other intercultural business encounters. Text 15(4): 589–627.

Watson, K.A

1975 Transferable communicative routines. Language in Society 4: 53–72.

Watts, R.J

1991 Power in family discourse. Mouton de Gruyter.

Watts, R.J

1997 Relevance theory and verbal interruptions: Assessing discourse status. Multilingua 16(2/3): 153–186.

Welkowitz, J., R.N. Bond & S. Feldstein

1984 Conversational time patterns of Japanese-American adults and children in same and mixed-gender dyads. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 3: 127–138.

West, C. & D. Zimmerman

1983 Small insults: A study of interruptions in cross-sex conversations between unacquainted persons. In B. Thorne, C. Kramerae & N. Henley (eds.), Language, gender and society: 103-117. Newbury House.  BoP

Wieland, M

1991 Turn-taking structure as a source of misunderstanding in French-American cross-cultural conversation. Pragmatics and Language Learning Monograph Series 2: 101–118.

Wiens, A.N., G. Saslow & J.D. Matarazzo

1966 Speech interruption behavior during interviews. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, and Practice 3: 153–58.

Willis, F.N. & S.J. Williams

1976 Simultaneous talking in conversations and sex of speakers. Perceptual and Motor Skills 43: 1067–70.

Zimmerman, D. & C. West

1975 Sex role interruptions and silences in conversation. In B. Thorne & N. Henley (eds.), Language and sex: Difference and dominance: 105–129. Newbury House.