Revision History

Version 1.5.6

(August 2011)

• Added Rule 6.4.3 to establish a convention for tagging letters when names are being spelled.
• Added Rule 6.12 to establish convention for tagging words that require anonymization.
• Added Rule 6.12.1 more information about the @n symbol.
• Modified Rule 6.5.2 to clarify rules for catch phrases and plusses.
• Added effort Spelling Conventions gloss to ugh in list of conventional spellings.

Version 1.5.5

(December 2010)

• Modified Rule 6.9 to specify using a plus sign to connect “a” when used as “one” at the beginning of a number.

Version 1.5.4

(October 2010)

• Modified Rule 6.5 and Rule 6.6, changing the requirements for which compounds are connected with plus signs and which are marked with underscores. In general, most compounds will be connected with + signs, but longer titles may take a “looser” connection and be transcribed with underscores.

Version 1.5.3

(August 2010)

• Added Rule 6.4.1 to specify how to mark plural letters and Rule 6.4.2 to specify how to mark possessive letters.
• Modified 1.1 in Section 1 (“Basics”), consolidating it with what was 1.5. It now describes how to setup your transcription environment with the transcript template, modified Autocorrect file, and AppleScript shortcuts for transcription.

Version 1.5.2

(June 2010)

• Modified Rule 6.2.1 to specify that nationality words (such as “German” or “American”) should be transcribed in lower-case (i.e., german or american).
• Modified Rule 6.6, changing the requirements for a word to be considered a compound and thus to be transcribed with a +. Henceforth, any word combination that has an entry in the OED, even those that are written as separate, non-hyphenated words will be transcribed with a +.

Version 1.5.1

(November 2009)

• Added Rule 6.8.1, clarifying transcription of possessive ‘s when a plural s is also used.
• Modified Rule 6.5 to state that each new word in a multi-word proper noun should be capitalized.

Version 1.5

(April 21, 2009)

• The capitalization conventions in Rule 6.2 and 6.2.1 were changed so that only proper nouns and the pronoun “I” are capitalized. Please note that the first word of an utterance and the word “ok”, which were once always capitalized, are now transcribed in lower case.
• Changed Rule 6.2.2 so that “Mom” and “Dad” are capitalized only when used as proper names. When used as common nouns, they are transcribed in lower case.
• Modified Rule 6.5.2 to clarify when “kind of” and “sort of” should be transcribed with an underscore.
• Added Rule 1.2.4, which explains the use of the New Words field on the Info page of the transcription template.
• Added Rule 6.11, which specifies spelling conventions for diminutives (using the suffix “-ie”) and adverbs derived from other parts-of-speech (using the suffix “-y”).

Version 1.4

(February 25, 2009)

• For Literacy Visits Only: Added Rule 2.1.4.2, which requires placing the m and f key codes in the key column when the child speaks to the mother or the father.
• Expanded the scope of Rule 2.3.4 so that the a key code is used not just with adult-directed PCG speech that the child responds to, but to all normally non-transcribed PCG speech that the child responds to. Essentially this means that PCG speech to pets (key code d) and on telephone (key code t) is now included.
• Modified Rule 2.8.2 to clarify the use of the v key code with spontaneous singing.
• Made a major change to Rule 3.3, eliminating the use of the b key code. Now, instead of placing a b key code when PCG and C speak at the same time, there is simply a prescribed order to transcribe the utterances in. Also slightly modified Rule 3.5 to reflect this change.

Version 1.3

(December 16, 2008)

Added several rules:

• Rule 2.1.3 outlines how to transcribe speech in a non-English language.
• Rule 2.3.2 requires placing codes in the key column when transcribing child speech to a non-transcribed entity (e.g. a sibling or pet).
• Rule 2.3.3 clarifies using the context column when non-transcribed speech is heard.
• Rule 6.2.1 requires the capitalization of proper nouns, with a brief note on abbreviations and acronyms.
• Rule 6.4.1 clarifies how to transcribe pluralized letters.

Made slight changes to quite a few rules:

• The wording in Rule 1.2.3 was altered slightly to clarify the proper format of the Total Time of Spontaneous Speech field.
• Rule 1.3.11 now refers to using x and xc key codes for non-transcribed overheard speech as opposed to non-PCG speech. This means x is also used every five minutes when the PCG or child has three dashes (---) in the utterance column.
• Likewise, Rule 2.10 was changed to include not only non-PCG or child speech, but also PCG and child speech that is not transcribed.
• Rule 2.1.1 was changed to clarify how to place codes in the key column for father utterances, including when multiple codes are required.
• Rule 2.1.4.1 states that the M and F key codes for literacy visits behave in the same way as the standard F code for father speech.
• Rules 2.4, 2.5, and 2.8 were changed to include the child for certain key codes (the wording had previously only included the PCG).
• Rule 2.9 specifies exact spacing and ordering rules for the key column.
• Rule 6.3.2 also specifies spacing when using brackets to denote repeated words or phrases.

Finally, made minor but very significant changes to a few rules:

• Rule 2.1.1 now states that the symbol F must be placed in the key column for ALL instances of father speech. This replaces the old convention of placing an @ in the key column. This change is also reflected in Rules 2.2.2 and 2.9.
• Rules 2.2 and 2.2.1 were changed to include the child when using the * key code for speaking to siblings.
• Rule 6.10 specifies the new convention for transcribing non-English words; instead of placing the & symbol before the foreign word, we now place the @f symbol after the foreign word (old: &abre new: abre@f). This change was made so that non-English words are still counted in syntax and word counts. (See Section 6.1 for an explanation of what gets counted as a word and what doesn’t).

–Max Masich

Version 1.2

(October 21, 2008)

• Rules 6.7 and 6.9 were updated to agree with other rules regarding the use of + and _ to connect words (see 6.5.2 and 6.6). The example in Rule 6.7 was simply written with an underscore, according to Rule 6.5.2. Rule 6.9 now states that numbers words should be separated by a plus sign (+), and that “AM” and “PM” should be transcribed using underscores (a_m and p_m).

Version 1.1

(September/August 2008)

September 26, 2008 - Rule 2.1.4 was added, specifying how to transcribe literacy visits with older children. September 22, 2008 - Rule 1.2.3 was added, requiring transcribers to note the length of spontaneous speech on the Info page. Rules 6.5.1 and 6.5.2 were added, clarifying the usage of underscores when transcribing multi-word phrases and proper nouns. August 25, 2008 - Rule 6.2.2 was added, stating the requirement to capitalize the words “Mommy” and “Daddy”.

Version 1.0

(August 2008)

August 19, 2008 - Added Sections 1.2.1 through 1.5 and Section 3.6. Changed Sections 5.9, 5.10, 6.1.2, 6.10, and 7.10 to be compatible with CHILDES conventions, so that the & symbol is at the front of a “nonsense word.” Also made Sections 6.4 and 6.6 compatible with CHILDES (letters transcribed with @l at the end, compounds written with + sign).

Notes

This document was created by Sarah Gripshover in collaboration with the other RAs, Jason Voigt, Susan Goldin-Meadow, Susan Levine, and Heidi Waterfall. Changes made from the 2005 Transcription Rules include a re-vamping of the organization of the document, a clarification of utterance boundary rules and rules for dealing with unintelligible speech, and the addition of some new spelling conventions (Section 6) to make our transcripts more compatible with the CHILDES database. Subsequent amendments to the rules will be noted, numbered, and dated in this section.