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Transcription System

 

Because spoken language is different from written language, it is difficult to write down spoken language and still show its important characteristics. Many systems have been developed to write down spoken language. We use a system based on one developed at the English Language Institute, University of Michigan, for their MICASE (Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English) project. We just changed their system a little to make it more suitable. It is not a difficult system.

The Main Points of Our Transcription System

  • Spoken language is not very tidy. It has many pauses, and includes mistakes, and repairs. We include all these.

  • We use idea units (which are a little different from sentences). Idea units are usually indicated by the voice and intonation. They are usually just a few words, and average about two seconds long. Idea units are often followed by a short pause, but not always.

  • We use normal spelling. Although we have special spellings for certain common abbreviations. We do not use capital letters to start idea units, we only use capital letters for names.

  • Idea units end in periods <.> and sometimes have commas <,> to indicate pauses and short grammatical units. Longer pauses use three periods <...>.

  • We try to write down everything the person says, including mistakes, repetitions, and repairs. We use an underline <_>to show that the speaker has not finished the idea. We use a hyphen <-> to show the speaker has not finished a word.

  • If there is something we don't understand, we use round brackets with x's inside. E.g. (xx xx) shows about two words are missing. If we are not sure what the speaker said, but we can guess, we put the speech in round brackets.

  • Any foreign words, slang, or mispronunciations are written in italics. Our comments go in square brackets.


See the Table Below for Full Details
Spelling Repetitions Acronyms
Short Form of Verbs Incomplete Statements Numbers
Other Short Forms Unclear Speech Questions
Common Abbreviations Laughter Possessives
Hesitations Nonstandard English Quotations
Pauses Capitals Paragraphs
 

Full Details of Our Transcription System:

  
For This is What We Do For Example
Spelling We use normal spelling for most words, even when they are not pronounced clearly or correctly. We try to use American spelling for American English, and British spelling for British English.  
Short Forms of Verbs Many common verbs have a short form. We transcribe the shortened form when it is used. i'd = I had; i've = I have; i'm = I am; she's = she is, she has; she'll = she will; they've = they have; that'll = that will; they're = they are; must've = must have; couldn've = could not have; oughta = ought to
Other Short Forms There are some common words, or expressions, which have a common short form. We try to show these, when the speaker used the shortened form. 'em = them; cuz = because; gonna = going to; gotcha = got you; gotta = got to; hafta = have to; kinda = kind of; wanna = want to; yaknow = you know
Common Abbreviations Common abbreviations are written as words. wait a sec
Hesitations We try to show all hesitations, or other non-words. ah; hm; huh; mm; uhum; okay; oh; ohhh; yeah; yep
Pauses Commas <,> show a significant grammatical division within the idea unit; often a short pause, but not always.
A period <.> shows the end of an idea unit. Often a short pause, but not always.We use three periods <...> to show a significantly longer pause.		 Note that this is a little different from the use of the comma and periods in writing.
Repetitions We transcribe repetitions of a word or syllable; although if a word is repeated many times we may not transcribe every repetition. so so so what this means is well, i i don't know
Incomplete Statements An underscore is used when the speaker stops before finishing the idea, or the grammatical unit.
When a word is not finished we use a hyphen after the last sound/letter.		 well i'm not sure whether_ actually it's not possible
how do we_ let's look at this againwha-
sl-
Unclear Speech When we can't figure out what the speaker said, we use brackets with x's inside.
When we can make a guess at what the person said, we put the words in the brackets.Also used with unknown names or foreign words we don't know.		 and then he just (xx ) the book = we think one word is missing
and then he (xx xx xx) at the table = we think about three words are missingand then he just (tore) the book
Laughter We show laughter with the sound that seems most appropriate. hehehe
haha
hahm
Nonstandard English We use italics when a word is not standard English (dialect or slang) or when a word is mispronounced.
Comments are given in square brackets.		 they were sitting at a kotatsu [a Japanese table]
then the boys in blue arrived
Capitals We use capitals for the first letter of all names
We do not use capitals at the beginning of idea units.We do not use capitals for the pronoun I.		 John
Mary
i live in London
Acronyms Acronyms pronounced as actual words are written in all capitals.
If acronyms are spelled out when spoken, then we use hyphens.		 UNESCO
DAT
E-S-L
D-N-A
Numbers We spell all numbers as they are spoken, and we do use hyphens. Ordinal numbers are written out. three hundred and twenty-one
three-two-one
Questions We use question marks to show all questions, whether by the use of grammar, or by voice intonation. was it big?
it was big?
Possessives We use apostrophes for possessives. John's book
Quotations We use double quotation marks to indicate a direct quotation. he said "i can't go" so we didn't expect him
Paragraphs We use paragraphs to separate the talk into its main parts. This makes longer passages more readable.
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