Transcription of Nonverbal Terms

1. Verbal terms

Such as onomatopoeia, should be transcribed with reference to our BLIP Dictionary for transcribers. For example, ‘meow meow’ would be transcribed out and tagged as English in the Language tier but for other ‘cat-like’ sounds it would be :v:animal_sound in the Utterance and Chunk tier, and would be tagged as Vocal Sounds.

Languageless words (such as ums and ahs) have to be transcribed as well, and tagged with their respective “Languageless” language tag.

2. Singing

Singing is to be transcribed exactly in the Utterance and Chunk tier. With the format :si:lyrics (e.g., :si:twinkle+twinkle+little+star). Words should be combined with a +.

3. Laughter (by adult speakers)

Laughter is to be transcribed as :v:laughter in the Utterance and Chunk tier.

4. Mimicking

Transcribe the contents of the Parents words with the tag “:m:”. For example, if the Parent mimics the baby saying “dadadada”, transcribe in the “Utterance” Tier as :m:da+da+da+da.Tag this in the Language Tier as whatever Language tag is applicable. This means if the individual is mimicking English words, tag it in the Language Tier as English, but if the individual is mimicking nonsense syllables, tag it as “Vocal Sounds”.

5. Unintelligible Words

Unintelligible words should be marked as ### in the Utterance tier. Tag those unintelligible segments with the Vocal Sounds language tag.

6. Protected Information

If an audio recording contains confidential information as defined by our lab’s Data Handling Handbook, do not transcribe the sensitive/confidential portion until you have discussed this matter with your supervisor. You may use the following code to comment and mark the potentially protected stretch of audio: “:PROTECTION-CHECK”. There will be weekly team meetings to discuss the contents of these protected sections.

7. Recorded Sound

Words from television, radio, announcements etc. should be labelled as “:external media - insert media form here”