The CHILDES Project
Tools
for Analyzing Talk – Electronic Edition
Part
1: The CHAT Transcription Format
Brian
MacWhinney
Carnegie
Mellon University
February 2, 2012
Citation for
last printed version:
MacWhinney,
B. (2000). The CHILDES Project: Tools
for Analyzing Talk. 3rd Edition.
Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
1 Table
of Contents........................................................................................................ 2
2 Introduction................................................................................................................. 5
2.1 Impressionistic Observation.................................................................................... 5
2.2 Baby Biographies.................................................................................................... 6
2.3 Transcripts.............................................................................................................. 6
2.4 Computers............................................................................................................... 8
2.5 Connectivity............................................................................................................ 8
2.6 Three Tools............................................................................................................. 9
2.7 Shaping CHAT....................................................................................................... 9
2.8 Building CLAN..................................................................................................... 10
2.9 Constructing the Database..................................................................................... 10
2.10 Disseminating CHILDES................................................................................... 11
2.11 Funding............................................................................................................... 11
2.12 How to Use These Manuals................................................................................ 12
2.13 Changes.............................................................................................................. 13
3 Principles................................................................................................................... 14
3.1 Computerization.................................................................................................... 14
3.2 Words of Caution................................................................................................. 15
3.2.1 The Dominance of the Written Word............................................................. 15
3.2.2 The Misuse of Standard Punctuation............................................................. 16
3.2.3 Working With Video...................................................................................... 16
3.3 Problems With Forced Decisions......................................................................... 17
3.4 Transcription and Coding...................................................................................... 17
3.5 Three Goals........................................................................................................... 18
4 CHAT Outline........................................................................................................... 20
4.1 minCHAT – the Form of Files.............................................................................. 20
4.2 minCHAT – Words and Utterances...................................................................... 20
4.3 Analyzing One Small File..................................................................................... 21
4.4 midCHAT............................................................................................................. 21
4.5 The Documentation File........................................................................................ 22
4.6 Checking Syntactic Accuracy................................................................................ 23
5 File Headers............................................................................................................... 24
5.1 Hidden Headers.................................................................................................... 24
5.2 Initial Headers....................................................................................................... 25
5.3 Participant-Specific Headers................................................................................. 30
5.4 Constant Headers.................................................................................................. 30
5.5 Changeable Headers.............................................................................................. 32
6 Words.......................................................................................................................... 36
6.1 The Main Line....................................................................................................... 37
6.2 Basic Words......................................................................................................... 37
6.3 Special Form Markers........................................................................................... 37
6.4 Unidentifiable Material.......................................................................................... 40
6.5 Incomplete and Omitted Words............................................................................ 43
6.6 Standardized Spellings.......................................................................................... 44
6.6.1 Letters............................................................................................................ 45
6.6.2 Compounds and Linkages............................................................................. 45
6.6.3 Capitalization................................................................................................. 46
6.6.4 Acronyms....................................................................................................... 46
6.6.5 Numbers and Titles........................................................................................ 46
6.6.6 Kinship Forms............................................................................................... 47
6.6.7 Shortenings.................................................................................................... 47
6.6.8 Assimilations.................................................................................................. 48
6.6.9 Exclamations.................................................................................................. 49
6.6.10 Communicators........................................................................................... 50
6.6.11 Spelling Variants.......................................................................................... 50
6.6.12 Colloquial Forms......................................................................................... 51
6.6.13 Dialectal Variations..................................................................................... 51
6.6.14 Baby Talk..................................................................................................... 52
6.6.15 Word separation in Japanese...................................................................... 53
6.6.16 Punctuation in French and Italian............................................................... 53
6.6.17 Abbreviations in Dutch................................................................................ 53
7 Utterances.................................................................................................................. 55
7.1 One Utterance or Many?....................................................................................... 55
7.2 Discourse Repetition............................................................................................. 57
7.3 Basic Utterance Terminators................................................................................. 57
7.4 Satellite Markers................................................................................................... 59
7.5 Separators............................................................................................................. 59
7.6 Tone Direction...................................................................................................... 60
7.7 Prosody Within Words......................................................................................... 60
7.8 Local Events.......................................................................................................... 61
7.8.1 Simple Events................................................................................................. 61
7.8.2 Complex Local Events.................................................................................... 62
7.8.3 Pauses............................................................................................................ 63
7.8.4 Long Events................................................................................................... 63
7.8.5 Interposed Back Channel............................................................................... 63
7.9 Special Utterance Terminators............................................................................... 64
7.10 Utterance Linkers................................................................................................ 66
8 Scoped Symbols......................................................................................................... 68
8.1 Audio and Video Time Marks............................................................................... 68
8.2 Paralinguistic Scoping and Events......................................................................... 69
8.3 Explanations and Alternatives................................................................................ 69
8.4 Retracing, Overlap, and Clauses............................................................................ 72
8.5 Error Marking....................................................................................................... 75
8.6 Initial and Final Codes.......................................................................................... 76
9 Dependent Tiers........................................................................................................ 78
9.1 Standard Dependent Tiers..................................................................................... 78
9.2 Synchrony Relations............................................................................................. 84
10 CHAT-CA Transcription........................................................................................ 86
11 Arabic Transcription............................................................................................... 89
12 Specific Applications.............................................................................................. 91
12.1 Code-Switching................................................................................................... 91
12.2 Elicited Narratives and Picture Descriptions........................................................ 92
12.3 Written Language................................................................................................