Abstract：Abstract：A quantitative study was made on the frequency and type distribution of interruption made respectively by the three parties in an accompanied medical consultation in China. The classification of interruption into cooperative ones and intrusive ones is further developed in this study. It is found that 1) interruption made by the doctor takes the highest proportion, with no significant difference between the interruption to the patient’s turns and that to the companion’s, and the top three interruption types employed are floor-taking, topic-change and clarification; 2) the companion’s interruption frequency is slightly higher than the patient’s, and they both interrupt the doctor significantly more than they interrupt each other. They impose intrusive interruption mostly on the doctor while the most frequently employed type on each other is cooperative interruption, esp. assistance. The study shows that, the doctor is the favored party in the power relation in the accompanied medical consultation in China, and he mainly interrupts for the purpose of managing the topics, proceedings and the length of the conversation. The patient and the companion have similar conversation agendas and both interrupt mainly to negotiate with the doctor to adjust conversation proceedings or to assist each other in presenting ideas clearly to the doctor. When negotiating with the doctor, the companion is more aggressive than the patient.
Key words：Accompanied medical consultation; triadic communication; conversation analysis; cooperative interruption; intrusive interruption
