Appendix Transcription Conventions
In order to capture pragmatically consequential aspects of talk I transcribe recorded conversations using conventions that are mostly adopted from Gail Jefferson’s (Reference Jefferson and Lerner2004) scheme, but simplified to make them readable by nonexperts in conversation analysis.
Lines are numbered for reference.
Emphasis
Underscoring indicates emphasis:
5 Peter: which is … the re-reddened … R-band magnitude … as observed
Intervals within and between Turns
An ellipsis marks an interval or pause of various length in time:
5 Otfried: So … it seems that we make some progress
Jefferson’s (Reference Jefferson and Lerner2004) scheme times intervals more precisely, but this detail is not needed for my purposes in this book.
Intonation
A full stop indicates a fall in tone at the end of a meaningful unit:
16 Henry: That is obviously to be discussed.
A question mark indicates a raise in intonation:
1 Olli: How’s the wind doing?
An exclamation mark indicates speech that is exceptionally animated:
5 Otfried: Exactly … which you criticized!
Uncertain and Incomprehensible Sounds and Speaker Ascriptions
Where I was unable to recognize verbal sounds confidently, I include candidate transcriptions in parentheses:
12 Christina: I think they (would be in that) mood
Empty parentheses mark the approximate length of indecipherable sounds:
13 Henry: That’s true … but if you … for example … ( )
Parentheses also indicate uncertain speaker ascriptions:
7(Mallory): [HA-HA-HA
Empty parentheses indicate unidentified speaker ascriptions:
15( ): That sounds like
Simultaneous Turns
Left side brackets on consecutive lines indicate where simultaneous turns begin:
6 Henry: [Yeah.
7 Joe: [Yeah.
Overlapping Talk
Left side brackets on consecutive lines indicate where overlapping talk begins:
6 Elias: You have some (thieves following you)[( )
7 (Mallory): [HA-HA-HA
Volume
Upper case letters mark increased volume:
24 Ben: [CHUANG
Note that – unlike in the Jefferson (Reference Jefferson and Lerner2004) scheme – I generally list project, software, and instrument names referenced in the text – like MUWAGS, REDCOR, and GROND – in capitals (as scientists do), at the risk of confusion with sounds louder than their surroundings.
Sound Stretches
A colon marks a stretched sound:
7 Christina: It is a:lso public.
Added colons indicate longer stretched sounds:
11 Elias: no::: heh
Laughter
Series of h’s signify the outbreath characteristic of chuckling or giggling:
1 Otfried: and tonight hhhh the first observations of A2713 for more than a year hhhhh have happened hhhhh
A series of ha-ha- marks laughter, its length indicates the length of laughter:
17 Eddie: ha-ha-ha-ha-ha If I was on a National Science Foundation panel
A series of he-he- marks laughter as well:
3 Christina: They’ve done it again yeah he-he-he-he-he … so yeah
HA-HA-HA marks loud laughter:
6(Group): HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA
Verbal Descriptions
Double parentheses contain descriptions of context, witnessed actions, and the delivery of talk:
2 Mary: ((looks at current weather data on the La Silla MeteoMonitor)) It says stable at eleven … on this one
7 Otto: ((whispers)) It has drifted away
Words Omitted from the Transcript
An ellipsis in parentheses marks the omission of words from the transcript:
The first thing is to upload the exposures … check the FITS headers and do all that. (…) The next steps are bias subtraction … correcting for nonlinear effects and some other small
Reported Direct Speech and Quoted Text
I indicate what I heard as reported direct speech using quotation marks:
Cristina: We were having dinner … and it was raining. And then the astronomer tells me: “I am going to the …” That was when we were observing in the dome.
Likewise, I indicate what I heard as reported quoted text using quotation marks:
39 Ken: a statement … “Billing address … please add your credit card here”
Open access