Beyond interruptions: Co-constructed activities in MP’s unofficial turns in Finnish, French, and German parliamentary debates

Research on parliamentary debates has often called unauthorised turns ‘interruptions’, emphasising their conflictual and monological nature. Our study aimed to examine their pragmatic functions and interactional nature, and to reflect on the terminology commonly used. Drawing upon data from the Finnish Eduskunta, French Assemblée nationale, and German Bundestag, we applied conversation analysis to the sequential analysis of these turns, while considering restrictions related to written transcripts. To highlight the non-interruptive and dialogical character of these unauthorised utterances, we propose labelling them unofficial turns. In our analysis, we demonstrate that these unofficial turns carry both affiliative and disaffiliative functions, which also contribute to the management of interpersonal relations. As a result, our study challenges the monological view of unofficial turns and highlights their co-constructional nature.