Utterance Categories

Question types

Wh- Questions

Number of questions that start with a wh- word (where, what, etc.)

• Where did he go?
• Why did you do that?

Negative Examples:

• Where he went is nice.
• When you went, you liked it, didn’t you?

Inverted Questions

Number of questions that start with an auxiliary (standard English question word order), excluding conjunctions and vocatives.

• Did you like it?
• Am I going?
• And did he like it?
• Mom, do I have to?

Negative Examples:

• Had I known, I wouldn’t have gone.

Tag questions

Number of questions formed from a declarative (ordinary) sentence with a tag, like “did he?”, tacked onto the end.

• You don’t like it, do you?
• You won’t go, will you?

Negative Examples:

• Do you?
• Will you?

Intonationally marked questions

Number of sentences that end in a question mark but do not fall into any of the previous categories of marked question, having the form of a standard declarative sentence.

• You’re going?
• He likes it?

Negative Examples:

• You’re going.
• Are you going?

Question with negation

Number of sentences that end in a question mark and contain a negative particle.

• He didn’t like it?
• You’re not going?

Negative Examples:

• No, really?
• He didn’t like it.

Statement with negation

Number of sentences that do not end in a question mark but do contain a negative particle. (“No” is not considered a negative particle.)

• I didn’t like it.
• I’m not planning on it.

Negative Examples:

• He didn’t like it?
• No, I liked it.

Size counts

Number of words

For each transcript, number of 1 word utterances, number of 2 word utterances, number of 3 word utterances, number of 4 word utterances, and number of utterances exceeding 4 words in length.

Number of clauses

For each transcript, number of 0 clause utterances, number of 1 clause utterances, number of 2 clause utterances, and number of utterances with a number of clauses greater than 2.

Sentence-level syntax

Noun Phrase Precedes Verb

Number of noun phrases which appear chronologically before the main verb of their clause, disregarding syntactic role.

• the fish swim.

Negative Examples:

• kiss her.

Noun Phrase Follows Verb

Number of noun phrases which appear chronologically after the main verb of their clause, disregarding syntactic role.

• kiss her.

Negative Examples:

• the fish swim.

Subject with Verb

Number of verbs appearing with a subject.

• I went.

Object with Verb

Number of verbs appearing with an object.

• Hit me.

Subject and Object with Verb

Number of verbs appearing with both a subject and an object.

• I hit him.