Transcription of a 5-minute conversation during the break
I. Multi-party conversation
The conversation took place during the break of a Statistic class. Jenny, Christy, Betty and Jeb are friends. They took the same class last semester and were familiar with each other. The recording began in the middle of their conversation. When two speakers talk at the same time, the overlap is marked by "//" to show where it occurs.
From the transcription, I found that utterances are different from written text in several ways: First, the vagueness of the utterances is acceptable as long as the hearers are able to identify the speaker’s meaning based on the context; second, with the extra information such as facial expressions and body languages, the conversation would be easier to understand for the listeners while sometimes it is difficult for readers to interpret the meaning when transcription is the only thing they can get access to.
From the recording, I also noticed that each individual may have different degree of participation as the topic changes. Take Betty for example, she talked a lot in the very beginning of the conversation because she was into exercise and fitness, while she didn't participate much in the later part since she is single and doesn't have children. Also, in a conversation with more than two participants, it's unavoidable that some people may be left out or get bored about the topics being discussed. As shown in this conversation, Jenny left without saying anything in the middle part.
II.
A. An Example of Implicature:
Jeb: My little girl was sick yesterday so I couldn’t go.
Jenny: what what what ..
Jeb: Her tooth…
Even though Jenny did not complete her question, Jeb clearly knew the implicit meaning of her question derived from the context. The conversation is context-dependent.
B. An Example of Deixis:
Jenny: What exercise do you do?
Christy: Do you go there too?
Jenny: She does, she does....She was there everyday last semester.
Betty: Yeah, last semester.
The reader would not be able to understand that the pronoun “there” refers to the “gym” since the contextual meaning of the pronouns is not stated clearly in the speech context.
III. Conversation
Jenny: What exercise do you do?
Christy: Do you go there too?
Jenny: She does, she does....She was there everyday last semester.
Betty: Yeah, last semester.
Jenny: You get some gifts, rewards….
Jeb: You probably get some...
Betty: Yeah I got all five gifts.
Jenny: All five gifts?
Christy: Good for you.
Betty: That's the incentive program. Do you know that?
Jeb: What's that?
Betty: It's a...when you join the incentive program..when you join the Texcercise first, and then you could join the Incentive program with additional 5 dollars, and then if you go there, like, forty-five times, you'll get like all the five gifts, 25 times, you'll get the first gift. It's accumulation.
Jenny: Like…that kind of thing
Jeb: Wow…sounds good.
Betty: You’ll get things like T-shirts, water bottle,
Jenny: ________________//Like a water jar…uh…
Jeb: I will be there 90 times.
Betty: [Giggling]
Betty: You’ll get whatever you want. [Giggling]
Jenny: ___________//you’ll get too fit. [Giggling]
Jeb: Yeah I should go.
Betty: So did you go there already?
Jeb: I would go….after…after…have to go to the course design.. cause I missed it yesterday.
Betty: oh you missed it yesterday? And you could switch from here to there?
Jeb: Well, I have to.
Jenny: So there are to…to…to.. Are they both on-line? I mean do they have the same course number?
Jeb: Yeah, just different day.
Jenny: ________//Really? Just different day?
Jeb: My little girl was sick yesterday so I couldn’t go.
Jenny: what what what ..
Jeb: Her tooth…
Jeb: She is retaining liquid
Jenny: Oh ok. Liquid from swimming?
Jeb: No it’s just liquid in your year. But we have a system where to, sort of from the year coming drained and normally drained to you but with her, it would stay there. She was sort of hearing late. When you go like this, put your finger like this, that’s how she sort of hearing
Jenny: How old, how old is she?
Jeb: Five.
Jenny: Five.
Jenny: It’s good that you got to communicate with her and know what’s wrong.
Jeb: Yeah yeah she uh..Yesterday I talked to her and it takes ten fifteen minutes…she wakes up and she’s like [don’t know what he’s talking about]
Betty: cannot hearing anything?
Jenny: [chuckles]
Jeb: She’s like…She’s listening everything…she’s like [shaking
his head and pretending to hear something]
Jenny: [Chuckle] Oh Really? [chuckle]
[Jenny left to talk to other students]
Jeb: She was like..
Betty: Where does the liquid come from?
Jeb: Everybody has..
Betty: some liquid inside.
Jeb: It drains out naturally but for her eardrum was flex out. That’s why she uh, at 5, for speech matters, should be..
Christy: Oh ok so because she could not hear ..very well
Jeb: ________________//very well, certain sounds she couldn’t hear
Christy: is she getting better now, or ?
Jeb: Well, they put certain tube..
Betty: _________//ear tube?
Jeb: Yeah, what they do is to stick it around inside, your eardrum will put this liquid so the liquid drains
Christy: Good good. That’s good.
Christy: I remember you have three daughters.
Jeb: Oh four.
Christy: Then you have to spend a lot of money for their dowry right? You know for a wedding..
Jeb: So my wallet is always empty.
Christy: [giggling] Yeah, that’s kind of strange, western society, I mean, why do you, the girl, the women’s family, have to prepare all for the wedding.
Jeb: I tell my girls you find your own money for the wedding.
Christy: I’m gonna save this for my retirement or something, for my traveling.
Jeb: Actually I do have something from my retirement.
Christy: That’s good for you. I think we’d better go back to the classroom.
Jeb: yeah.
The conversation took place during the break of a Statistic class. Jenny, Christy, Betty and Jeb are friends. They took the same class last semester and were familiar with each other. The recording began in the middle of their conversation. When two speakers talk at the same time, the overlap is marked by "//" to show where it occurs.
From the transcription, I found that utterances are different from written text in several ways: First, the vagueness of the utterances is acceptable as long as the hearers are able to identify the speaker’s meaning based on the context; second, with the extra information such as facial expressions and body languages, the conversation would be easier to understand for the listeners while sometimes it is difficult for readers to interpret the meaning when transcription is the only thing they can get access to.
From the recording, I also noticed that each individual may have different degree of participation as the topic changes. Take Betty for example, she talked a lot in the very beginning of the conversation because she was into exercise and fitness, while she didn't participate much in the later part since she is single and doesn't have children. Also, in a conversation with more than two participants, it's unavoidable that some people may be left out or get bored about the topics being discussed. As shown in this conversation, Jenny left without saying anything in the middle part.
II.
A. An Example of Implicature:
Jeb: My little girl was sick yesterday so I couldn’t go.
Jenny: what what what ..
Jeb: Her tooth…
Even though Jenny did not complete her question, Jeb clearly knew the implicit meaning of her question derived from the context. The conversation is context-dependent.
B. An Example of Deixis:
Jenny: What exercise do you do?
Christy: Do you go there too?
Jenny: She does, she does....She was there everyday last semester.
Betty: Yeah, last semester.
The reader would not be able to understand that the pronoun “there” refers to the “gym” since the contextual meaning of the pronouns is not stated clearly in the speech context.
III. Conversation
Jenny: What exercise do you do?
Christy: Do you go there too?
Jenny: She does, she does....She was there everyday last semester.
Betty: Yeah, last semester.
Jenny: You get some gifts, rewards….
Jeb: You probably get some...
Betty: Yeah I got all five gifts.
Jenny: All five gifts?
Christy: Good for you.
Betty: That's the incentive program. Do you know that?
Jeb: What's that?
Betty: It's a...when you join the incentive program..when you join the Texcercise first, and then you could join the Incentive program with additional 5 dollars, and then if you go there, like, forty-five times, you'll get like all the five gifts, 25 times, you'll get the first gift. It's accumulation.
Jenny: Like…that kind of thing
Jeb: Wow…sounds good.
Betty: You’ll get things like T-shirts, water bottle,
Jenny: ________________//Like a water jar…uh…
Jeb: I will be there 90 times.
Betty: [Giggling]
Betty: You’ll get whatever you want. [Giggling]
Jenny: ___________//you’ll get too fit. [Giggling]
Jeb: Yeah I should go.
Betty: So did you go there already?
Jeb: I would go….after…after…have to go to the course design.. cause I missed it yesterday.
Betty: oh you missed it yesterday? And you could switch from here to there?
Jeb: Well, I have to.
Jenny: So there are to…to…to.. Are they both on-line? I mean do they have the same course number?
Jeb: Yeah, just different day.
Jenny: ________//Really? Just different day?
Jeb: My little girl was sick yesterday so I couldn’t go.
Jenny: what what what ..
Jeb: Her tooth…
Jeb: She is retaining liquid
Jenny: Oh ok. Liquid from swimming?
Jeb: No it’s just liquid in your year. But we have a system where to, sort of from the year coming drained and normally drained to you but with her, it would stay there. She was sort of hearing late. When you go like this, put your finger like this, that’s how she sort of hearing
Jenny: How old, how old is she?
Jeb: Five.
Jenny: Five.
Jenny: It’s good that you got to communicate with her and know what’s wrong.
Jeb: Yeah yeah she uh..Yesterday I talked to her and it takes ten fifteen minutes…she wakes up and she’s like [don’t know what he’s talking about]
Betty: cannot hearing anything?
Jenny: [chuckles]
Jeb: She’s like…She’s listening everything…she’s like [shaking
his head and pretending to hear something]
Jenny: [Chuckle] Oh Really? [chuckle]
[Jenny left to talk to other students]
Jeb: She was like..
Betty: Where does the liquid come from?
Jeb: Everybody has..
Betty: some liquid inside.
Jeb: It drains out naturally but for her eardrum was flex out. That’s why she uh, at 5, for speech matters, should be..
Christy: Oh ok so because she could not hear ..very well
Jeb: ________________//very well, certain sounds she couldn’t hear
Christy: is she getting better now, or ?
Jeb: Well, they put certain tube..
Betty: _________//ear tube?
Jeb: Yeah, what they do is to stick it around inside, your eardrum will put this liquid so the liquid drains
Christy: Good good. That’s good.
Christy: I remember you have three daughters.
Jeb: Oh four.
Christy: Then you have to spend a lot of money for their dowry right? You know for a wedding..
Jeb: So my wallet is always empty.
Christy: [giggling] Yeah, that’s kind of strange, western society, I mean, why do you, the girl, the women’s family, have to prepare all for the wedding.
Jeb: I tell my girls you find your own money for the wedding.
Christy: I’m gonna save this for my retirement or something, for my traveling.
Jeb: Actually I do have something from my retirement.
Christy: That’s good for you. I think we’d better go back to the classroom.
Jeb: yeah.
posted by June at 12:30 AM
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