Multi - Modal Study On Interruption In Investigation Interrogation

As a typical institutional discourse, police-suspect interview has an explicit task-orientation. The fulfillment of the task mainly relies on police’s inquires and suspect’s responses. However, the verbal interactive communication between these two parties do not always strictly abide by the turning-taking rules, on the other hand, is sometimes filled with a certain amount of interruptions. In fact it not only complies with the characteristics of daily oral communication, but also serves as means and strategies for both conversational participants to achieve their own institutional purposes and goals.To fully explore and display the nature of interruption, the research employs the STFE Principle as theoretical foundation and Simulation Modeling as methodology.Through an all-around description and analysis of the interruption phenomenon, the paper reveals its intrinsic characteristics and underlying rules and patterns in police-suspect interview.The result of this thesis shows that among the different types of interruption initiated by investigators, the multi-modal features presented by the suspects seem to differ in most ones, with only slight similarities among the information acquiring type,the topic changing type and the self-repairing type. As for the two interruption types initiated by the suspect, the differences in multi-modal characteristics prove to be even more obvious and complicated.In terms of quantitative proportion, the seven different types of interruption initiated by investigators demonstrate certain distinctions. Statistics shows that the frequency of each interruption type is in positive correlation with its own ability and effect in acquiring information. As for the two types of interruption initiated by suspects,there seems to be little disparity in number and frequency.In responding to interruptions, the answer/response patterns of the suspects tend to overlap in the three major interruption types and differ in the minor ones. Whereas, the response of investigators depends basically on the potential purpose of the interruption initiated by the suspects.Finally, in matter of effect, the three major types of interruption initiated by investigators, though generate diverse response, prove to be adequately competent in acquiring information and achieving its own pragmatic purpose. Thus, the above interruption types are indispensible in the police-suspect interview since they all contribute to the efficiency and effectiveness of the investigation work.To conclude, this paper gives an in-depth summary and generalization of the multi-modal characteristics of both conversational parties, reveals their potential pragmatic purpose and provides effective interruption strategy.