The Handbook of Discourse Analysis

336 Jane A. Edwards
Couper-Kuhlen 1993 and Dutoit 1997 for reasons why this was unjustified). It may
also be due to a lack of tools facilitating this type of encoding (such as exist now for
prosodic encoding). A practical and systematic approach to encoding it is found in
Couper-Kuhlen (1993).
2.2.6 Turn-taking
Categories concerned with turn transition include unusually short pauses between
one speaker and the next (latching), interruption by the second speaker, and simultaneous
talk (overlap). These conventions are among those devised by Gail Jefferson for
conversation analysis (Jefferson 1984; Psathas 1990) and used widely in any area of
discourse research concerned with coordination of turns across speakers (e.g. Gumperz
and Berenz 1993).
Transcription systems differ as to whether they mark only the beginnings of overlapping
sections or also the ends (see Leech et al. 1998). They differ too in whether
they mark overlap only by adjacent marks or also by indentation.
2.2.7 Nonverbal aspects and events
Nonverbal actions constitute a communicative resource which is partially independent
of spoken language. As such, it raises many of the issues already discussed
with reference to spoken language, such as how detailed the descriptive system can
be without overburdening a viewer, and what is the best format for displaying the
information.
Partiture format is the one most often used for capturing nonverbal events (e.g.
Ehlich 1993; Neidle and MacLaughlin 1998). One approach (by Farnell 1995, cited in
Duranti 1997: 149) involves the use of Laban notation, borrowed from choreography.
The SignStream Project (discussed in the next section) provides a computer interface
for handling complex data of this type as well as linking the transcript to the
videorecording.
For capturing gaze patterns during conversations, Jefferson (1984) proposed inserting
a line above or below an utterance to indicate the stretch of words during which
mutual gaze occurred. A couple of additional conventions are used to indicate transition
into and out of mutual gaze, to identify who is involved, and other details. This
system has been found useful in several studies (e.g. Goodwin and Goodwin 1992).
3 Practicalities
Transcription is a notoriously time-consuming process. The exact amount of time
required depends on the type of speech involved (e.g. amount of interruption, selfrepair,
or overlapping speech) and the amount of detail (e.g. word flow, prosodics,
turn-taking). Estimates for word-level transcription with minimal added information
are in the range of 10 or 11 minutes of transcribing for every 1 minute of speech (e.g.
Crowdy 1995; Gibbon et al. 1997: 171). To produce a transcript containing the types
of information encoded in most discourse transcripts (e.g. overlaps, pauses, stress or