Talking Data: Transcription and Coding in Discourse Research / Edition 1

by Jane A. Edwards, Martin D. Lampert

Overview

This book presents the reader with a set of diverse, carefully developed and clearly specified systems of transcription and coding, arising from contrasting theoretical perspectives, and presented as alternative choices, situated within the theoretical domain most natural to each. The perspectives represented include first and second language acquisition, interethnic and crosscultural interaction, information structure, and the study of discourse influences on linguistic expression.

In the contributed chapters, the designers of these systems provide a distillation of collective experiences from the past quarter century, telling in their own words their perspectives on language processes, how these perspectives have shaped their choice of methodology in transcription and coding of natural language, and describing their systems in detail. Overview chapters by the editors then provide design principles and guidelines concerning issues pertinent to all systems, including such things as reliability, validity, ease of learning, computational tractability, and robustness against error. The final chapter is a compendium of existing computerized archives of language data and information sources together with details concerning data access and use.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780805803488
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/01/1993
Pages:	332
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Lexile:	1410L (what's this?)

About the Author

Jane A. Edwards, Martin D. Lampert

Table of Contents

Contents: Part I:Transcription. J.A. Edwards, Principles and Contrasting Systems of Discourse Transcription. W.L. Chafe, Prosodic and Functional Units of Language. J.W. Du Bois, S. Schuetze-Coburn, S. Cumming, D. Paolino, Outline of Discourse Transcription. J.J. Gumperz, N. Berenz, Transcribing Conversational Exchanges. K. Ehlich, HIAT: A Transcription System for Discourse Data. L. Bloom, Transcription and Coding for Child Language Research: The Parts are More Than the Whole. Part II:Coding. M.D. Lampert, S.M. Ervin-Tripp, Structured Coding for the Study of Language and Social Interaction. D.I. Slobin, Coding Child Language Data for Crosslinguistic Analysis. J.W. Du Bois, S. Schuetze-Coburn, Representing Hierarchy: Constituent Structure for Discourse Databases. Part III:Resources. J.A. Edwards, Survey of Electronic Corpora and Related Resources for Language Researchers.

Editorial Reviews

"...offers a detailed and sophisticated but nonetheless accessible introduction to transcription....Talking Data's exploration of transcription problems and solutions could save months of painful experience for new investigators of discourse, who should read with a notepad in hand. Its insights into the details of spoken language could be stimulating for many psychologists and others interested in how people think and communicate."
—Contemporary Psychology

"The editors have done an excellent job of soliciting contributions from many of the major discourse analysts in the areas of sociolinguistics and child language....The book would definitely help establish procedures based on solid methodological grounds rather than on past practice."
—Journal of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology

"...tackles the problem of representing the wide range of phenomena in speech that cannot be written down. The contributors to this book are well chosen not only in that they come from different disciplines, but they also have extensive practical experience of the problems under discussion....a valuable survey of what'scholars have done to date....the questions being raised are timely and essential..."
—ICAME Journal

"...a valuable sourcebook for anyone interested in the problems of the transcription and/or coding of oral discourse, especially for researchers who are designing their own system or adapting an existing one to their own purposes. It offers many practical hints, concrete examples, and theoretical/methodological explanations....an excellent stimulus for critical reflection on basic issues in an essential phase in discourse research."
—Functions of Language

From the Publisher