MNTA lBYABJMJB.A MPJEJB.S IN )LINGUISTICS VOLUrtlE 4: DISCOURSE TRANSCRIPTION JOHN W. DU BOIS, SUSANNA CUMMING STEPHAN SCHUETZE-COBURN, DANAE PAOLINO EDITORS DEPARTMENT OF LINGUISTICS UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SANTA BARBARA 199:2 Papers in Linguistics Linguistics Department University of California, Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, California 93106-3100 U.S.A. Checks in U.S. dollars should be made out to UC Regents with $5.00 added for overseas postage. If your institution is interested in an exchange agreement, please write the above address for information. Volume 1: Korean: Papers and Discourse Date $13.00 Volume 2: Discourse and Grammar $10.00 Volume 3: Asian Discourse and Grammar $10.00 Volume 4: Discourse Transcription $15.00 Volume 5: East Asian Linguistics $15.00 Volume 6: Aspects of Nepali Grammar $15.00 Volume 7: Prosody, Grammar, and Discourse in Central Alaskan Yup'ik $15.00 Proceedings from the fIrst $20.00 Workshop on American Indigenous Languages Proceedings from the second $15.00 Workshop on American Indigenous Languages Proceedings from the third $15.00 Workshop on American Indigenous Languages Proceedings from the fourth $15.00 Workshop on American Indigenous Languages PART ONE: INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 What is discourse transcription? . 1.2 The goal of discourse transcription . 1.3 Options . 1.4 How to use this book . CHAPTER 2. A GOOD RECORDING 9 2.1 Naturalness . 2.2 Sound . 2.3 Videotape . CHAPTER 3. GETTING STARTED 12 3.1 How to start transcribing . 3.2 Delicacy: Broad or narrow? . 3.3 Delicacy conventions in this book . PART TWO: TRANSCRIPTION CONVENTIONS CHAPTER 4. UNITS , 16 4.1 Intonation unit . 4.2 Truncated intonation unit . 4.3 Word . 4.4 Truncated word . CHAPTER 5. SPEAKERS 22 5.1 Speaker identification and turn beginning . 5.2 Speech overlap . CHAPTER 6. TRANSITIONAL CONTINUITY 28 6.1 Final . 6.2 Continuing . 6.3 Appeal . CHAPTER 7. TERMINAL PITCH DIRECTION 32 7.1 Fall . 7.2 Rise . 7.3 Level . CHAPTER 8. ACCENT AND LENGTHENING 35 8.1 Primary accent . 8.2 Secondary accent . 8.3 Booster . 8.4 Lengthening . CHAPTER 9. TONE 39 9.1 Fall . 9.2 Rise . 9.3 Fall-rise . 9.4 Rise-fall . 9.5 Level . CHAPTER 10. PAUSE . 42 10.1 Long pause . 10.2 Medium pause . 10.3 Short pause . 10.4 Latching . CHAPTER 11. VOCAL NOISES 48 11.1 Vocal noise . 11.2 Glottal stop . 11.3 Inhalation . 11.4 Exhalation . 11.5 Laughter . CHAPTER 12. QUALITy 52 12.1 Quality . 12.2 Laugh quality . 12.3 Quotation quality . 12.4 Multiple quality features . 12.5 Quality (one-line duration) . CHAPTER 13. PHONETICS 59 13.1 Phonetic/phonemic transcription . CHAPTER 14. TRANSCRIBER'S PERSPECTIVE 61 14.1 Researcher's comment . 14.2 Researcher's comment (specified scope) . 14.3 Uncertain hearing . 14.4 Indecipherable syllable . PART THREE: SUPPLEMENTARY CONVENTIONS CHAPTER 15. DURATION 65 15.1 Duration of simple event . 15.2 Duration of complex event . CHAPTER 16. SPECIALIZED NOTATIONS 67 16.1 Intonation unit continued . 16.2 Intonation subunit boundary . 16.3 Embedded intonation unit . 16.4 Reset . 16.5 False start . 16.6 Codeswitching . CHAPTER 17. SPELLING 73 17.1 Spelling out the words . 17.2 Acronyms . 17.3 Marginal Words . 17.4 Variant pronunciations . CHAPTER 18. NON-TRANSCRIPTION LINES 80 18.1 Non-transcription line . 18.2 Interlinear gloss line . CHAPTER 19. RESERVED SYMBOLS 82 19.1 Phonemic and orthographic symbols . 19.2 Morphosyntactic coding . 19.3 User-definable symbols . CHAPTER 20. PRESENTATION 84 20.1 Salient line of text . 20.2 Salient words . 20.3 Ellipsis . 20.4 Source citation . 20.5 Extra-long intonation units . 20.6 Line numbering . CHAPTER 21. THE TRANSCRIBING PROCESS 90 21.1 Where to begin? . 21.2 Preliminaries . 21.3 Initial sequence . 21.4 Refining sequence . 21.5 Other people . 21.6 Presentation . 21.7 The transcription and the tape . CHAPTER 22. IDENTIFYING AND CLASSIFYING INTONATION UNITS 100 22.1 Intonation Units . 22.2 Five Cues for Intonation Units . 22.3 Problems in Identifying Intonation Units . 22.4 Avoid syntactic thinking . 22.5 Avoid lumping . 22.6 Semantically Insubstantial Intonation Units . 22.7 The Grab-bag Unit . 22.8 Hard-to-hear Material . 22.9 Intonation Subunits . 22.10 Accuracy in Intonation Unit Identification . 22.11 Point-by-point vs. Unit Summary Systems . 22.12 Point-by-point systems . 22.13 Unit Summary systems . 22.14 Conclusions . PAR T F I V E: BACKGROUND ISSUES CHAPTER 24. DOCUMENTATION 119 24.1 Documentation sheets . 24.2 File header . CHAPTER 25. EQUIPMENT 122 25.1 Transcribing equipment . 25.2 Recording equipment . CHAPTER 26. TRANSCRIPTION SYSTEM DESIGN 125 26.1 Introduction . 26.2 Functionality . 26.2.1 Speech recognition . 26.2.2 Consistent lexical recognition and "regularization" . 26.2.3 Discriminability of word-internal symbols . 26.2.4 Representing variation . 26.2.5 Avoiding "fragile" notations . 26.2.6 Units and spaces . 26.3 FamIlIarIty . 26.3.1 Literary sources . 26.3.2 Transcription system sources . APPENDIX 3: DOCUMENTATION SHEETS 199 SPEECH EVENT SHEET . SPEAKER SHEET . TAPE LOG . TRANSCRIPTION SHEET . TRANSCRIBER'S CHECKLIST (NARROW) . TRANSCRIBER'S CHECKLIST (BROAD) . As discourse analysis comes more and more to playa leading role among new approaches to understanding language, the need for close attention to its research tools likewise increases. The first task of this book is to teach how to transcribe spoken conversational discourse. Yet as things stand now in the field of discourse, any work which makes this its primary goal must also undertake a certain preparatory labor: in addition to explicating methods for transcribing discourse, it must simultaneously create, or rather codify and systematize, the very system that it describes. This is because, frankly, there has not yet emerged within the domain of discourse transcription any single preeminent system or convention that is agreed upon and used by all practitioners -- comparable, say, to the more or less universal employment by phoneticians of the International Phonetic Alphabet. Of course there are many individual transcription practices and notations which are quite widespread, and these provide a good foundation for any general discourse transcription system. Yet across the panorama of present transcription practice there remain many alternatives to be weighed, and uncertainties to be clarified. Thus the present work must add to its central goal of teaching discourse transcription the foundational task of codifyinga system for carrying out this practice. The system outlined in the followingpages has emerged over a period of five years of research, experimentation, discussion, teaching, and lecturing about the transcription of everyday conversation. This work has benefitted beyond measure from the exceptionally stimulating and cooperative environments in which it was formed, amidst the aficionados of spoken discourse at the universities of Berkeley, UCLA, UC Santa Barbara, and Uppsala. The transcription system's roots go back further than the period of its writing, indeed further than the seven to seventeen years of transcribing experience of its authors, to encompass the several transcribing traditions which have provided the foundations as well as many of the details of the present formulation. The system arrived at in the end is one which seeks to select, distill, clarify, codify, and occasionally augment elements from a variety of current approaches to transcribing spoken discourse. In all of this we have seen our primary goal as that of systematizing a general framework for discourse transcription, rather than innovating for innovation's sake. Naturally such a project draws very substantially from the work of others. Useful elements of theory, method, and notation have come from teachers, colleagues, students, and researchers in several disciplines. Among the most direct influences have been those of Wallace Chafe (1979, 1980a, 1980b, 1987,forthcoming), Norman McQuown (1967, 1971), Elinor Ochs (1979), and Emanuel Schegloff (Sacks, Schegloff, and Jefferson (1974) (and, indirectly, Gail Jefferson (Schenkein 1978,Atkinson and Heritage 1984)). Through the teaching of McQuown we became aware that documentary integrity requires not only accurate listening and precise annotation but a transcription system adequate to the task at hand, even if you have to build your own; and Ochs has made us keenly aware of the theoretical implications which must accompany any decision about how to write down and display speech. Through the teaching of Chafe we have become attuned to the crucial significance of hesitations for clues about the process of verbalization, and to the importance of the intonation unit as the fundamental unit of the discourse production process. From Schegloff and the Conversation Analysis tradition we have sought to learn the fundamental techniques for attending to turn-taking, overlap, pause, and other elements which embody the interactional dimension of conversation. And from Chafe, Ochs, Schegloff and others we have acquired a certain preference for notational devices which are accessible to the nonspecialist, especially those adapted from the familiar conventions of ordinary literary style. Of course these represent but a few of the many insights, orientations, and techniques that so many discourse researchers have contributed to the present formulation; and many will doubtless recognize in this document their own contributions. For their many valuable comments on and contributions to this document and to the system it describes, we thank Karin Aijmer, Bengt Altenberg, Roger