Uncovering Gender Interruptions in the Friends series

The findings of this study are pretty fascinating especially when it comes to gender differences in cooperative interruptions. Despite previous research by linguists like Edelsky (1981) and Coates (1989) it turns out that men initiate more of these interruptions than women as highlighted by James and Clarke (1993:239). Interestingly an individual''s speech style seems to play a critical role in this trend rather than gender alone. As we have seen in previous sections of this study Ross utilizes more cooperative interruptions when conversing with women as part of his supportive and collaborative speech behavior. These interruptions demonstrate his interest care and involvement with his closely related speakers.