Tape-recording Data

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Tape-recording Data

• Deny A. Kwary
• Airlangga University
• www.kwary.net

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Recorded data is suitable for

• First-language acquisition
• Second-language acquisition
• Sociolinguistics
• Accent and dialect studies
• Conversation analysis

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Considerations in recording the data

• Places to get the data your home, a programme on
  TV, a hotel, etc.
• Audio for one informant video for several
  informants.
• Ethics and legality
• Ask their permission first, or ask them
  afterwards.
• The quality of the recording

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How much data do you need?

• Conversation The first five minutes.
• Accent a small quantity as long as the examples
  fill in the phoneme chart.
• Dialect a longer recording.

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Transcribing speech

• Phonetic transcription Using IPA and enclosed in
  square brackets.
• Phonemic transcription Using IPA and enclosed in
  slanted brackets.
• Orthographic transcription the conventional
  spelling system of the language.

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Transcribing speech orthographically

1. Dealing with silence
2. Dealing with complexity
3. Dealing with obscurity
4. Dealing with volume

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1. Dealing with silence

• Use dashes for tenths of seconds with a plus for
  the one that makes up a full second.
• Give the duration numerically in brackets.
• If you cannot time the pause, write a pause in
  double brackets if it occurs within a speakers
  turn, and gap within double brackets if it occurs
  between different speakers turns.

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2. Dealing with complexity

• Where one person begins when someone else is
  already speaking, use a single opening square
  bracket before the new speakers words, aligned
  vertically with another at the appropriate point.
• A so we didnt have to wait long
• B no we didnt
• If it is already the end of a line, but you want
  to show that the same speaker has continued,
  although someone intervened during the line, use
  the latching symbol.

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3. Dealing with obscurity

• If it really is impossible to decipher the
  utterance
• Put empty brackets, or
• Put indecipherable in brackets, or
• Put an asterisk for each indecipherable syllable.
  
• If you can guess it, but you have some doubt
  about it, put your guess in brackets.

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4. Dealing with volume

• Use capital letters to show loudness.
• Use degree signs (superscript circles) on both
  sides of a quiet utterance.

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Team Assignments

1. Ask your friend who has an A in Speaking IV to
   pronounce several english words. Record and
   transcribe them phonetically.
2. Record a dialog on MetroTV. Transcribe it
   orthographically.