These are the convention transcriptions that were used in the examples.
A. Contiguous utterances
- =
Equal signs indicate no breakup or gap. They are placed when there is no interval between adjacent utterances and the second utterance is linked immediately to the first.
B. Overlaps
- [
A left bracket indicates the point of overlap onset.
- ]
A right bracket indicates the point at which two overlapping utterances end, if they end simultaneously, or the point at which one of them ends during the course of the other. It is also used to parse out segments of overlapping utterances.
C. Intervals
- ( )
Parentheses indicate the time in seconds and, when placed within an utterance, mark intervals or pauses in the stream of talk.
- –
A dash marks a short untimed pause within an utterance.
D. Characteristics of speech delivery
- ↑↓
The up and down arrows mark sharp rises or falls in pitch.
- :
A colon marks a lengthened syllable or an extension of a sound.
- :::
More colons prolong a sound or syllable.
- word
Underlining is used to indicate some form of stress or emphasis, either by increased loudness or higher pitch.
- .
A period marks a fall in tone.
- ,
A comma marks continuing intonation.
- ?
A question mark signals rising intonation.
E. Other markings
- (( ))
Double parentheses are used to mark the transcriber's descriptions of events.
