Russel-Research-Method-in-Anthropology

488 Chapter 17
Symbol
TABLE 17.1
Symbols for Transcribing Verbatim Text
Definition
: Indicates length. More colons indicate more length.
text Speech between angle brackets is faster than normal speech.
(text) Text in parentheses means that the transcriber had doubts about it.
( ) Parens with no text means that transcriber could not make it out at all.
(1.6) Numbers in parens indicate pauses, in seconds and tenths of a second
(.) A period in parens indicates an untimed and quick pause
((text)) Double parens contain comments by the researcher about people’s
gestures, gazes, and so on. Often in italics.
[ ] Square brackets indicate where one person interrupts another or talks
simultaneously.
– An en-dash (longer than a hyphen) indicates an abrupt end in the middle
of a word
? A question mark indicates rising intonations. It does not necessarily
mean that a question is being asked.
. A period indicates falling intonation. It does not necessarily mean the
end of a sentence.
The equal sign indicates that a person takes a turn immediately as the
previous turn ends.
text Text between degree symbols is quieter than the rest of the text.
TEXT Text in caps is louder than the rest of the text.
Text
.hh and hh
Underlining means that the text is emphasized.
These indicate inhaled (with period first) and exhaled (no period)
breaths, as often occurs in natural conversation.
SOURCE: John F. Manzo, ‘‘Taking Turns and Taking Sides: Opening Scenes from Two Jury Deliberations,
Social Psychology Quarterly 59, p. 124 (June 1996). Reproduced by permission of the American Sociological
Association.
a turn, by anticipating the end of a turn—a supportive gesture—or by interrupting
and trying to take away the speaker’s turn by force—a hostile gesture.
Big gaps occur so rarely in real conversations because speakers anticipate the
end of turns so well. For example:
1. A: what a cute nose.
2. B: all babies ha–
3. A: [no they don’t
A takes a turn; B jumps in immediately; and then A says, ‘‘no they don’t’’
just as the syllable ‘‘ba’’ in ‘‘baby’’ registers. There are no gaps because the
end of the second turn, by B, is predictable to A.
If the turn-taking runs out of steam in a conversation, either because it